In The Shadow of the Beasts
by rylek196
Summary: In the wake of his lover's sacrifice, a young man travels to the Forbidden Lands in the hope of resurrecting her. However, little does he know that in order to do so, he must first give up his humanity... A retelling of Shadow of the Colossus.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Well, here I am, trekking back to the Forbidden Lands to rewrite the first story I ever posted on here. Let me fucking tell ya, folks, I look back on the original version of this story with shame. Pure, unfiltered _shame._ Not only did I botch nearly everything, the most egregious error I made was not doing this absolutely amazing game justice. Seriously, Shadow of the Colossus beats the everloving _fuck _out of every Zelda game that ever has and will ever be made, and did I prove that with the original version of this story? _Hell fucking NO._ So here I am, a few years older and a few years more experienced, to repent for my sins. Perhaps, to paraphrase Lord Emon, I will make atonement for what I've done. I hope you all enjoy once again.**

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**In The Shadow of the Beasts Redux**

By: Rylek196

Prologue: To the Ancient Land

_This wasn't supposed to happen, _a young man on horseback thought. _None of it. It just _should not _have happened._

Of all the thoughts swirling in his brain, this was the most prevalent. The sense of... wrongness, about his whole situation. As he carefully manoeuvred the horse he rode- Agro, her name was, judging by the label above the stall he had stolen her from- along the treacherous path inside the canyon, one feeling stood out from the rest.

That feeling was rage. Pure, white-hot fury. Fury at what had happened, fury at what he had been forced to resort to, fury at _them _for taking her from him...

His dark thoughts abruptly paused as an hawk flew by his head, narrowly missing him. He adjusted the cloth-covered bundle attached to Agro's saddle, for it was the most precious cargo imaginable to him, then continued on. Perhaps, he thought, it would best to think about simple things. His name, for one. His name was Wander. That was a start.

He next thought of his appearance and apparel, though he knew neither mattered much in the grand scheme of things. He was wearing the standard uniform of his village's militia- a tan tunic with shorts of a slightly darker shade, tough leather greaves that covered his shins, and an ornate tabard worn over the tunic, which covered his chest and back and trailed down to slightly below his waist.

He once again stopped, but for a different reason. There was a slight gap in the path ahead, and making sure yet again his cargo was secure, he had Agro back up a bit, and jump it. He looked back at the gap and sneered, spiting the fact that it existed.

Moving on, he continued with his thoughts. Where was he? Ah, yes, his physical appearance. He had hair that was a cherry-red colour, a plain, if pale, face, a relatively toned, muscular build, and grey-green eyes. Everyone knew that eyes were windows to a person's soul, and anyone who knew even a bit about psychology could tell that despite their nonthreatening colour, Wander's eyes were two boiling lakes of anger.

He had always been savage, even as a young boy, hunting animals and skinning them alive for the fun of it, and seventeen years of being alive had only honed his psychopathic nature. It was no wonder he was feared in the militia. His fellow archery cadets, as he himself was an archer, were wary of angering him, lest they bring his wrath down on their heads.

He had initially wanted to hone his skills with a sword, and become a soldier in the regular military, but he had been denied. Mastering a blade took a certain amount of discipline, and it also took honour, knowing when to spare a wounded foe. These were two things Wander sorely lacked. Not that it stopped him from having one now. He was well aware of the consequences for what he had done, but he didn't care.

He turned a slightly upward-slanted bend in the path, one which afforded him a great view of the clouds illuminated by the full moon, and kept going.

It was several more hours of riding before he came to a marshy forest, the moonlight filtering through the treetops. Agro's hooves kicked up dead leaves as she trundled on. Wander wished he could go faster than a slow trot, but riding any faster risked dislodging his cargo. So, he was forced to keep going at a measured pace, his patience wearing ever thinner. It was just a good thing he knew where his destination was.

The forest eventually grew more and more narrow, coming to a head between two short, rock walls. By now it was dawn, and Wander could see his destination on the horizon. However, it had started to rain. _Damn it! _Wander mentally cursed. _Of all the bloody things that had to happen, why this!?_

To avoid the constant onslaught of falling water, he steered Agro under an overhang on the right rock wall. He had been riding all night, and was tired. Careful not to jostle his cargo, he slipped out of Agro's saddle, taking a seat on the ground, his back to the rock. Agro moved to lay down too, but was stopped by a growl from Wander. "You will not rest until I say you can," he said threateningly. "We'll continue on once I've had a nap- rain or no rain."

Agro snorted as Wander closed his eyes, falling into a light sleep. About half an hour later, Wander awoke, mounted Agro, and rode ever onward. The rain had by now lessened into a light drizzle. While annoying, it did not deter him as he rode across a plain, and soon enough, the rain stopped, leaving only puddles behind.

The day had progressed to an hour before noon when he finally came to his destination: a great stone wall. Obviously man-made, it was tall, with twenty-four pillars in rows of twelve on either side, though most of them on one side had fallen or been destroyed, leaving only sixteen standing. In the centre of the wall was a deep slit that ran the entire height of it. Just barely wide enough to allow horse and rider with his bundle passage through, Wander looked upon the place he had been trying to get to.

The Forbidden Lands. A vast, unknown and feared terrain, it was this landscape that Wander hoped held the power he needed to accomplish his task. The first thing he saw was the enormous bridge. Spanning from the cliffsides upon which Wander now stood to the massive tower-like structure he could see kilometres away, it was enough to make any architect commit ritual suicide out of shame. The grand white construction was held up by elegantly curved tresses, too many to count. Downwards they plunged, stabbing the ground at various points in the vast desert that Wander could see made up most of the north of the Forbidden Lands.

His heart pounding in his chest, Wander began to carefully guide Agro across the bridge. There were no guardrails, no safety feature in place along the sides; one wrong move meant death. Eventually, he made it to the massive tower- the Shrine of Worship. The entrance to the Shrine was a stone door, which slid ominously upward as he neared it. Agro whinnied and squirmed in agitation, Wander kicking her sides harshly to get her moving once again. "Let's go," he grumbled.

The opened door revealed a staircase leading down. At the bottom of the stairs, was a giant, cylindrical room, with a narrow, spiralling ramp serving as a path to the bottom. Yet again, it took some careful riding to get Agro to the bottom of the ramp, as it was obviously made only for people on foot, not horseback.

A pool of still water lay in the centre of the circular room, though Wander gave it only a passing glance. What he was seeking lay just beyond this room.

Going through one more arched entryway, he at last ventured into the giant main hall of the Shrine of Worship. A wide, long room, built of grey stone with a high, vaulted ceiling and an alter at the end, this was where the power he was seeking lay hidden. The most striking feature of this room, though, were the huge alcoves on either side of the hall. There were two rows of eight alcoves, each holding a massive, ornately carved statue.

Wander eyed each one in turn as he rode down to the end of the hall. Just looking at them gave him an odd feeling, like the statues were somehow not of this world, like something other than the hands of men had created them.

He reared Agro to a halt under a hole in the ceiling that let the light of the sun into the Shrine. He dismounted, taking a second to stretch his legs. He then reached up to Agro's saddle, unclipping the bundle where it had been attached. Taking the cargo into his arms, he walked up to the alter, placing it upon its surface.

With a dramatic flourish, he pulled the cloth away, revealing his cargo to be the body of a young woman. She was clothed in a simple but elegant long-sleeved white dress, green and purple designs adorning it. He looked down at the corpse, the rage in his eyes growing more potent.

Once, this brown-haired maiden had a name, a life, and a purpose in his. Her name was Mono, the light- and love- of his life. She was the one that had somewhat tempered the wrath in his heart, showed him there was more to life than just killing and death and anger. And somewhere along the line, he had fallen for her.

_And they took her from me,_ he thought. _They fucking took her. Them and their absurd, damnable beliefs..._

When she died, or rather, was murdered in cold blood, all her teachings to him had gone up in the fires of wrath. There was only one thing that mattered to him now: Bringing her back. At any cost. It didn't matter if he had to go down to the bowels of Hell itself to bring her soul back.

A memory came to him then. It was of him, and several other militia recruits, years ago, sitting around a fire, listening to their village's leader and prime shaman, Lord Emon, recite an esoteric monologue. He could practically hear the crackling of the fire and the smell of the smoke, the mental visual was so vivid.

"_That place..." _Emon had said, _"Began with the resonance of intersecting points... They are memories replaced by ens and naught and etched into stone. Blood, young sprouts, sky- and the one with the ability to control beings created from light... In that world, it is said that if one should wish it one can bring back the souls of the dead... ...But to trespass upon that land is strictly forbidden."_

Wander had never forgotten that speech. It remained one of his clearest memories, though he had no idea why.

Unknown to Wander due to his recollections, something was happening in the hall behind him. With disgusting yet quiet slurping sounds, several humanoid beings made of shadow were emerging from the floor. He was only alerted when Agro neighed in fear.

Turning around, he saw the shadow beings. "What is this!?" he yelled, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword. "I swear, if any of you..._ creatures_ wish further harm on me, I'll cut you all down!"

With that, he ripped the blade from its sheath. The sword he carried was no ordinary piece of sharpened metal- it was a sacred artifact to his people. The Ancient Sword. Forged by unknown hands in elder days, it was nicknamed 'The Magic Killer' due to its rumoured ability to destroy any magical spell, object, or being, simply by stabbing it.

Its next ability, Wander then demonstrated as he thrust the blade forward into open air. A beam of light surged forth from the blade, washing away the shadow beings like the tide does to a sandcastle. That was the Ancient Sword's other power- the ability to lead the user to any magical artifact simply by holding it up to the light.

Suddenly, there was a noise like the rumbling of thunder, and a deep, guttural voice boomed throughout the Shrine. **"Hmm? Thou possesses the Ancient Sword? So thou art mortal..." **

Wander at first was taken aback, then he remembered what the restricted texts he had read about the Forbidden Land had said.

"Are you Dormin?" he asked. "I was told that in this place at the ends of the world, there existed a being who can control the souls of the dead." He sheathed his sword, hearing no threat from the voice.

The cloth that had once concealed Mono's corpse blew away as Dormin replied. **"Thou art correct... we are the one known as Dormin..." **

Wander gestured at Mono. His voice turned grim, shaking with barely contained rage. "Sh-she was... sacrificed, for it was told to me she had a cursed fate. I _refuse_ to believe it. Please... I need you to bring back her soul..."

The voice of Dormin seemed to snicker, an action that made Wander's blood reach boiling point. **"Heh heh heh hah-ha... That** **maiden's soul? Souls that are lost cannot be reclaimed... Is that not the law of mortals?" **

His anger at hearing that sentence from his last hope finally made Wander snap. "I don't _care _if it's the law of mortals or not!" he yelled, furious tears forming in his eyes. "She was taken from me, and I want her _back! Give her back to me!" _

"**Thou art a wrathful mortal..." **Dormin said.** "We sense much anger in thy heart... Still, calm thyself... We did not say bringing her soul back was not possible..." **

Wander's anger evaporated in a heartbeat, replaced by desperate, almost insane hope. "Really!?"he cried. "How!? Tell me how!"

"**The sword that thou carries is the key..." **Dormin explained. **"We can bring her back... that is, of course, if thou manages to accomplish what we askest..." **

"What do I have to do?" Wander asked, the spot of hope in his chest growing ever larger.

"**Behold the idols that stand along these walls..." **Dormin said.** "Thou art to destroy all of them. But those idols cannot be destroyed- not by the mere hands of a mortal..." **

"Then what am I to do?" Wander asked.

"**In this land, there exists Colossi that are the incarnations of those idols," **Dormin told him. **"If thou defeat those Colossi... the idols shall fall." **

"I understand," Wander said firmly.

"**But heed this, the price you pay may be heavy indeed." **Dormin warned him.

Wander looked back at Mono with clenched fists. _I swore I would go to any lengths to get you back, Mono,_ he thought._ If this is what I have to do, then so be it._ He looked up at the hole in the ceiling where Dormin presumably dwelt. _"It doesn't matter," _he said.

"**Very well..." **Dormin boomed, sounding pleased. **"Raise thy sword by the light... and go to the place where the sword's light gathers... There, thou shalt find the Colossus thou art to defeat."**

Unsheathing his sword once again, Wander walked out onto a balcony that overlooked the southern plains of the Forbidden Lands. The fury in his eyes blazed hotter than it ever had. He held up the Ancient Sword, the flat of the blade catching the mid-afternoon sun, the light beam pointing directly to the southern cliffs some distance away. _I'll bring you back, Mono,_ he thought. _I'll slay every one of those foul beasts, and we'll be together again. I promise. _

And so what would become a genocide began.

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**A/N: And there you have it. Improvement, thy name is Rylek. Anyways, a word of warning: Since I'm officially working on two stories now, and this one does not have priority, updates will be _slow. _I'm not sure how slow, but slow. Just to get this outta the way, some of the changes I added in the original version (such as the day/night cycle, which the actual game does not have) will make their return. I'm not sure if the nightmares will though. I want to do something similar, but more subtle. We'll see. Either way, you can leave a review if you're so inclined. Or don't, makes literally no difference to me regardless. **


	2. The Minotaur

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_**By: **_**Rylek196**

The First: The Minotaur, Valus

After sheathing his sword, Wander led Agro by the reins down the steps leading out of the Shrine of Worship. Once outside, he mounted his horse, and unsheathing the blade again, held it up to sunlight. The beam appeared, pointing directly south, exactly as it had done in the Shrine.

The young archer took a breath, letting his arm fall to his side, and let it out shakily.

_Really, how hard can this be? _He thought to calm himself._ I go where the the light says I go, kill some creature, repeat fifteen more times, and I'll have Mono back before I know it. _

Later, he would curse himself for thinking something so foolish and arrogant.

Agro snorted impatiently, eager to get moving. "All right, all right," Wander chuckled, "let's get going."

Spurring the horse on with a kick to her sides and a "Yah!" they were off.

Horse and rider were a blur as they tore across the landscape, Wander only giving passing glances to the small hills and a tree standing about halfway between the Shrine of Worship and his destination. In a little over five minutes, they had arrived where the light pointed: a 'U' shaped gap in a mountain. Strangely, there were what seemed to be ancient man-made stairs leading up to the gap, hinting that people may have lived in the Forbidden Lands in ages past.

Spying a moss-covered wall that he was sure he could climb, Wander dismounted Agro, grabbed a hold, and started to haul himself up. Rubbing his hands on his shorts to clean them of dew once he was at the top, he kept going. A little farther up was a small gap, which he effortlessly jumped. Carefully, he crossed some old wooden planks that creaked under his weight, jumped yet another gap, dive-rolled under a fallen pillar, and soon reached the top of the cliff.

Just as he got to a path that led to a wide, straight, dry plain hemmed in by mountains on either side, there was a massive BOOM.

_What the hell? _

Wander froze in place when a huge cloven hoof smashed down in his line of sight. It was followed by another, then came an equally large hand swaying by.

The young warrior couldn't believe his eyes. The beast- a Colossus, he realized- was easily seventy feet tall. The giant creature seemed like a massive statue come to life, but, as Wander noted as he gazed at it speechlessly, it also had organic elements, such as fur.

The Colossus carried in its left hand a club the size of a woodshed. Wander subconsciously moved his eyes down to the puny blade in his hand and gulped.

The beast, having not seen him, continued on its way, leaving a stunned Wander in its wake. "How in- how am I supposed to even _fight_ this thing, let alone _kill _it?!" Wander said aloud, trying to put at least some of his jumbled thoughts into words.

As if in answer, Dormin's voice rang out in Wander's mind.

_**Hold up thy sword to reflect light onto the Colossus. Its vitals shall be revealed...**_

Managing to swallow his fear, Wander stepped out onto the plain, holding up his blade at the retreating form of the Colossus. The beam materialized, shining right where he happened to be pointing it- at the beast's right back-jointed leg. This seemed to show a red area on the creature's calf, but he was too far away to tell for sure.

Still holding up his sword, Wander moved a bit closer. However, by now the Colossus picked up on the fact that something was shining a light on it, and turned around. Its blue, crystal- like eyes became orange when it saw the weapon- wielding human. Wander, still holding up the sword, almost failed to see an odd symbol light up on the beast's head when the beam accidentally hit it.

Once more frozen with fear, Wander could do little more than stare as the beast stomped towards him. He snapped out of his stupor when the beast raised its club to smash him into pulp. He dive-rolled out of the way as the huge weapon descended, missing death by a few feet.

Immediately scrambling to his feet, he ran around the monster, trying to get to its leg. He jumped onto the matted tan fur on the beast's calf, finding a grip. The glowing red spot reappeared, in the centre of it was a teal-coloured crack on the creature's fur. Said creature shook its leg to and fro, an unfortunate Wander being tossed about.

Once the shaking stopped (and once his disorientation passed) Wander jabbed his sword into the creature's leg. It roared in pain, kneeling over,

Wander leaped from its leg to its furry rear end, trying to get to a platform he could see just above him before his grip gave out. Hauling himself up and not giving any thought as to why a living being would have platforms on its back, he took a short breather and kept climbing.

He could see two smaller platforms just above him, so he aimed for those. He clambered up onto the left the left platform, then the monster's hunched neck, going for the head. Wander was sure that mark- that Sigil- had to be a weak point. On top of the creature's head, he crouched down and drove his blade into the glowing spot with all his might. Pulling it out, a geyser of inky black blood gushed out of the wound, drenching Wander's body.

The Colossus gave a bull-like roar and bucked its head back, nearly flinging Wander off. The determined young man held fast, stabbing again. Another geyser of blood showered Wander, who wiped the gore off his face.

He stabbed a third and fourth time, enduring more thrashing from the Colossus. For the final blow, Wander stood up, jumped, and drove his sword downwards, burying it up to the hilt in the monster's skull.

The Colossus gave a roar of agony and started to fall. Wander closed his eyes and braced himself as the ground rushed up to meet the head of the beast. The corpse hit the ground with a BOOM, throwing up a cloud of rock dust.

Breathing heavily, Wander hopped off the beast's head. As he gazed at the dead body, however, he felt a stab of guilt and shame. While by no means harmless, the Colossus was still a living work of art. Then, something odd happened to the corpse; a black shroud covered it, and tentacles of the same colour burst out of it. The tentacles aimed right for a perplexed Wander, seeping into him and making his entire body go numb. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a bright white light...

**A/N: Number of stabs each Colossi will take to kill:**

**Valus: 5 (As you saw quite clearly).**

**Quadratus: 4 (Two stabs for each Major Sigil).**

**Gaius: 5 (Three for the stomach, two for the head).**

**Phaedra: 3**

**Avion: 6 (Two stabs for each Major Sigil).**

**Barba: 6* (Two for each Major Sigil). *Note: Since this is a fairly vanilla fight under normal circumstances, I've added the Hard Mode hand Sigil to Barba.**

**Hydrus: 4 (Not including Minor Sigils).**

**Kuromori: 4 (Two for each Major Sigil). **

**Basaran: Assuming I can beat this guy, 4.**

**Dirge: 5 (Two for the tail Sigil, three for the head).**

**Celosia: 2 **

**Pelagia: Undecided; three, possibly four stabs. (This is a **_**very **_**boring fight, I'm hesitant to have it drag out for too long).**

**Phalanx: 6 (Two for each Major Sigil).**

**Cenobia: 2 or 3**

**Argus: 6* (Three for each Major Sigil). *Note: Argus is an unusual case. For the sake of realism, its palm Sigil will not even exist. The only two Sigils it will have are those on its head and chest.**

**Malus: A full suite of SEVEN STABS. **


	3. Taurus Major

**A/N: Okay, this was a really fun battle to write. Talk about something just coming out of your fingers... Y'know, when I look back on writing this, I'll probably say "Yeah, chapter 2 was a breeze." Wow, am I rambling. Um, anyway, enjoy the improved battle with Quadratus!**

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**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_**By: **_**Rylek196**

The Second: Taurus Major, Quadratus

One of the shadowy humanoid beings that Wander had seen before Dormin made his presence known watched over him as he lay unconscious in the Shrine of Worship. The shadow vanished as Wander began to stir. Had he actually seen it, the course of his adventure would have played out very differently. He may have even abandoned the thought of resurrecting Mono entirely. Sadly, none of these things happened, sealing the fate of many innocent creatures.

Pushing himself to his feet, he looked around in confusion.

_How did I get back here? _He thought, before a small, almost unnoticeable voice in his head told him it was of no importance.

His clothing was no longer covered in the blood of the Colossus, he noticed to his relief, although it was slightly dirtier from rock dust. Sheathing his sword as he walked up to Mono, he brushed a lock of hair out of her face and smiled when he saw she looked a tiny bit healthier.

Suddenly the ground rumbled like an earthquake was hitting, Wander whirled around to see the Idol representing the first Colossus glowing. With a deafening KA-BOOM, the statue exploded into a shower of dust and debris.

"Well," Wander said to himself with a sense of finality, "That's that. One down, fifteen to go." Just as the words passed his lips, the guttural voice of Dormin boomed forth.

"**Thy next foe is… In a seaside cave… It moves slowly… raise thy courage to defeat it…"**

The voice faded out of existence again, leaving Wander be.

Walking outside and pulling out his sword, he held it up to the light. This time though, the light merely reflected off the blade, scattering in different directions. The sun, also, had moved in the sky, indicating he was not merely teleported back to the Shrine.

_Strange... _he thought, referring to both the sun's movement and his sword's behaviour, but then an idea struck him.

He turned around, facing the interior of the Shrine, and held his sword up again. The beam shone straight into the Shrine, pointing north and dissipating further in due to lack of light.

_Well, obviously I can't_ _go __through walls, so that must mean I have to go _around _the Shrine to get to the next Colossus. _He thought.

Wander went back into the Shrine, past the alter where Mono lay, taking note of a new addition: A single, pure white dove had landed around the alter. Shrugging to himself, Wander called for Agro, receiving a neigh of reply.

His stolen steed galloped into the Shrine, stopping right in front of him. He mounted her, riding down the steps and into the Forbidden Lands once again.

Going around the Shrine to the right, he stopped when he was under the bridge. From his vantage point on the ground, Wander could truly marvel at its sheer enormity. The legs dwarfed the first Colossus, rising up hundreds of feet into the air. He couldn't even fathom what would happen to someone if they were to actually fall off the bridge proper.

As soon as he thought this, an image took over his mind. Wander saw himself, plummeting from the top of the bridge and hitting the ground. Needless to say, not much of his body was left.

Wander shook his head to drive the gruesome mental picture away, but he couldn't get rid of the eerie feeling the vision had wrought. Wondering where in the world the the vision had come from, he spurred Agro on. A little farther ahead stood two carved stone structures that looked as if they had once belonged to an archway, one that had long since crumbled.

_Yet more proof, _thought Wander, _that people lived here at one point in time._

The destroyed archway stood watch over a natural rock bridge, which Wander and Agro crossed. Across the bridge was a sort of 'fork in the road.' One path led off to a vast plain, while the other led to a seaside cove. It was a no-brainier where the second Colossus was.

Wander rode Agro down the gently sloping path, and soon her hooves kicked up sand. Seeing a huge, cracked wall behind which there was a cave, Wander led Agro to it.

Arriving at the wall, a loud BOOM sounded, like something was pounding on the wall from the inside.

Wander froze. Another BOOM was heard. All of a sudden, the wall exploded outwards, sending chunks of rock flying. Wander's heart nearly stopped.

_Oh... my... God..._

The Colossus that emerged was easily three times the size of the first. It looked like some ungodly combination between a mammoth and a bull. It only had one horn, the other having long since been broken off by an unknown force. Like the first however, it seemed to ignore both man and horse, simply walking around aimlessly on its four legs.

Knowing he had to get its attention, Wander stuck his forefinger and thumb in his mouth and whistled at it. The noise caused the animal-like Colossus to turn its head towards him. Upon seeing the puny man, its blue eyes turned orange. It gave a bellowing, screeching roar and made right for Wander.

In an effort to confuse it, Wander had Agro circle the beast. Soon the creature grew enraged at the endless turning, and raised its front hooves to smash Wander and Agro into the sand. Wander immediately steered Agro away from the monster when he saw it rearing up.

The hooves came down hard, throwing up a cloud of sand. Luckily, Wander and Agro were already a short distance away, so they weren't crushed, though the pair still felt the shockwave.

However, Wander could have sworn he saw something glowing on the underside of the hooves as the creature raised them. He steered Agro towards the bull-mammoth, circling it again, this time trying to bait it into raising its hooves.

Unfortunately, it had gotten wise to this tactic, and lashed out at horse and rider with its rear left leg when Agro sped past. The kick missed, so all this did was confirm Wander's hunch:there _were _glowing spots on the bottom of the creature's hooves.

_Those have to be weak points! _Wander thought jubilantly. Jumping off Agro's saddle- he needed to be on foot for this- he ran around to the beast's front.

He yelled at the creature to get it to turn and face him. The bull-mammoth, having been driven into a frenzy by anger, turned and raised its front hooves.

This was exactly what Wander had planned it would do. As the creature raised its front hooves, he whipped his bow off his back, undid his quiver and notched an arrow.

The arrow hit right where he had aimed it, burying its sharp point into the glowing spot on the beast's right foreleg. With a screech in pain, the bull-mammoth lowered its leg onto the ground. Its matted fur was now within reach.

Wander ran up to it, putting away his bow and closing his quiver as he went. He jumped onto the fur, his hands finding purchase. The beast seemed to know something with malicious intent was climbing it, so it shook its foot to dislodge the arrow there.

After climbing the beast's leg, Wander pulled out his sword, holding it skyward. The beam pointed at the beast's back, lighting up a Sigil there, though Wander couldn't see this.

Of course, getting to the back of the creature was no easy feat. It constantly shook side to side and on top of that, there were bony ridges all along its back that Wander had to scramble over. Eventually, he did make it to the bull-mammoth's backside, where a Sigil awaited. The Colossus let out an animalistic roar as the Ancient Sword was plunged into the glowing mark.

Wander tried to avoid the blood geyser, but accidentally swung into it as the beast shook wildly. Scrunching his face in revulsion at being covered in the substance, he stabbed again. He pulled the sword out of the bull's flesh, getting covered in black blood as he did so, and saw the Sigil vanish... but the beast remained alive!

"Wha-" Wander thought aloud, but the monster cut him off by roaring and thrashing more violently than ever before. This time, he was nearly shaken off. He regained his grip at the last second, hauling himself back onto where the Sigil once was.

_There must be one more- there has to be! _Wander thought.

Getting unsteadily to his feet, he held his sword up to the light, towards the beast's head. The beam appeared, guiding directly to the Colossus' head. _There!_

Wander began to run along the beast's back in order to reach its head. Doing so, however, was easier said than done. The bull-mammoth, knowing the human was approaching its death mark, thrashed about, nearly dislodging Wander several times. This also had the side effect of making its bony ridges that much harder to climb over.

Finally making it to the top of the creature's head, Wander quickly stabbed twice more, ending the creature. The Colossus let out one last roar and toppled over onto its side, Wander hanging on for dear life the whole way down. As he jumped off the body, he felt an overwhelming sense of guilt.

Looking back at it, he thought, _It was just an innocent animal... and I killed it..._

Then, to his horror, he saw the black shroud cover the corpse... and the tentacles headed right for him!

Wander couldn't even start to run away before they seeped into him, making his body go numb again.

He saw the white light, but this time, before consciousness left him, he heard a small noise, like someone trying to talk...

* * *

**A/N: In case any of you are wondering exactly _how_ Wander closes his quiver, I'll explain as best I can here. Basically, his quiver has a leather top with a string on it. The string is wrapped around a button on the quiver to close it. That's how it works.**


	4. Shattering the earth

**A/N: This is an unusual case, this chapter. When I deleted the original, I didn't realize I didn't have the Gaius battle saved on any of my files on my memory stick. Oh, I had part of the chapter, but the fight was gone. Ah, well, I hope you like this new fight. Word of warning, though, kiddies: this chapter contains some gore and language. **

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_**By: **_**Rylek196**

The Third: Earth Knight, Gaius

A second shadowy humanoid figure had joined the first as Wander once more lay passed out in the Shrine. Behind them, the Idol of the bull-mammoth Colossus glowed and exploded. The noise roused the young man, who made it tiredly to his feet. His muscles were starting to ache, but during the battles against the Colossi, he was too full of adrenaline to notice. Now though, the pain was beginning to set in.

Not seeing the already- vanished shadow beings, Wander looked up at Dormin's light as the voice spoke its piece.

"**Thy next foe is... A giant canopy soars to the heavens... The anger of the sleeping giant shatters the earth..."**

Wander didn't know what 'a giant canopy soars to the heavens' meant, and he certainly didn't like the sound of 'the anger of the sleeping giant shatters the earth'. Enquiring to Dormin about the former part, he received no answer.

Huffing in frustration, he walked up to Mono again. When he approached the alter, he scared two doves doves hopping around it.

_Wait- two? _Wander thought.

Looking up, he saw that yes, there were in fact two doves now flying in the air above his head.

"Interesting..." he said, but gave it no more thought as he stepped outside. The sun had well and truly began its descent, having reached its zenith when Wander crossed into the Forbidden Lands.

_I'll have to find the next Colossus quickly. _

For the third time while he was outside the Shrine, he held up his sword. The light behaved the same way it had last time, so Wander faced the inside of the Shrine. Instead if straight north, the beam this time was a bit more northwestern.

Wander found Agro prancing about just outside the Shrine, he pulled himself into the saddle and took off. He dreaded going underneath the white bridge again, fearing another vision if he did. He tried to ride quickly... but it was no use. As soon as he passed underneath it, the vision took hold of his mind, pulling him away from reality...

The image was much clearer this time. He felt the wind rush past him, momentarily chilling his skin, then he hit the ground with a THUMP. It didn't stop there, however. The aftermath was shown to him in far greater detail. He could see shattered bits of bone sticking out of torn flesh, brain matter leaking from a skull crushed beyond conceivable repair...

Wander furiously shook his head back and forth, attempting to rid his mind of the disturbing picture, coming back to the real world.

He then saw, to his horror, that he was riding Agro right for an ancient pillar overlooking the natural bridge!

Tugging harshly on the reins, he brought her to a complete stop. Quickly dismounting the horse, he breathed heavily, placing a hand against the pillar for support. He could feel the bitter taste of bile in his mouth as he recalled the last few moments.

Before had been incredibly rattling, yes, but it was nothing compared to this. This was so flat-out grisly that just thinking about it almost made him spew the contents of his stomach all over the ground.

_Why... the fuck... does this keep happening? _He thought, still reeling from the mental snapshot of his broken corpse.

Agro looked at him, concern seeming to glimmer in her brown eyes. Wander gave her a weak smile in return. Though he had only recently 'acquired' the horse, he was fast growing a bond with her.

Grimacing as he swallowed vomit, he said, "I'll be fine, girl. Just got a little... distracted there."

Agro gave him a look that said she wasn't buying it, but he mounted her anyways.

Crossing the rock bridge, and looking over the right side, Wander saw something almost as disturbing as the vision.

The lifeless body of the bull-mammoth still lay where he had slain it. Only, it wasn't so much a corpse now as it was part of the landscape. Shrubbery grew on it, and rock had partially encased it.

Wander looked away, feeling immensely sorrowful.

Continuing on, he rode across a sandy plain, all the while following the rapidly-diminishing beam from his sword.

A light mist settled in the air as he entered a rocky path. Coming out of it, Wander's eyes widened taking in the sight before him.

A massive, slightly tilted circular platform of rock jutted up hundreds of feet into the air in the middle of a vast lake. Wander dismounted his horse, taking a waterskin from her saddlebag.

Man and horse both drank their fill from the cool lake water. _I'll have to remember this place. _Wander thought as he filled the waterskin and put it back in the saddlebag.

He left Agro on the lake's shore, knowing horses couldn't swim, and waded into the water. Shivering at the temperature, he began to swim towards a stone ramp that went alongside the platform.

He took a moment to stretch his biceps after reaching the ramp, then ran up it.

To Wander's dismay, the ramp didn't go all the way to the platform. Rather, there was a single stone stone block held aloft by a pillar he would have to jump to.

Aiming for the ledge snaking around the block, he jumped. Wander grunted as his hands found purchase. He shimmied around the block, sizing up the gap between it and the lip of the platform. It was easily ten feet across. His quadriceps screamed in protest as he kicked off the block, but he made the jump, grabbing the edge of the platform.

Hauling himself up with some difficulty, Wander took a second to catch his breath after his two leaps of faith. Walking cautiously along the outer rim of the platform, he eventually found a set of stairs he could use to get to the flat top of the platform.

As he ascended them, he could see a massive, unmoving shape lying on the sandy ground. Wander realized this was his opponent. But, for a single, naive moment, he assumed the Colossus was already dead.

...Then it moved.

Wander's face paled as the humanoid Colossus rose up, towering much higher than the first, until it reached its full height of nearly a hundred feet tall. Its feet were strangely spherical, and parts of it were, like the first two, covered in fur, this time it was silver- grey.

Grey stone also covered it parts of it, to the point that when it was lying down, it looked like a collapsed building. Its left (Wander's right) arm ended in a 'hand' that was nothing more than a jumbled mess of fur and stone blocks, like the end of a mace or flail, while its right had no hand. Instead, the arm ended in a fearsome, sword- like pillar of stone longer than one of the knight- like Colossus' legs.

Said pillar was being used to support its weight as it stood up. Chunks of rock fell off the beast as it rose, implying it had been at rest here for a very long time.

Wander suddenly felt a pang of guilt at what he had to do, but that quickly disappeared as the Colossus turned to face him.

Unlike the first, Wander wasn't paralysed with fear; he just started running. Chancing a look over his shoulder, he immediately dashed to the right as he saw the creature wind up a swing with its weapon. While the attack thankfully missed, the impact shockwave still knocked him off his feet. Groaning, he pushed himself back up.

The knight, now struggling to pull its blade from the sandy earth, moaned in pain as it was shot in the lower back by an arrow from Wander. It ripped its sword from the ground, only to have a Sigil be lit up on its abdomen when it whirled around.

Wander shut his quiver as the Colossus stomped towards him. The beast raised its sword in a stabbing motion, getting ready to crush Wander with a more precise strike. Wander's eyes widened and he sprinted out of the way when he registered what the knight was about to do.

The attack again missed, giving Wander the time he needed to properly observe the creature.

The only way to climb it seemed to be to go up its sword and get onto its arm, but Wander noticed a problem with this. Halfway up the beast's sword arm was a stone 'cuff' (for lack of a better term), that prevented climbing beyond its wrist.

The knight pulled its blunt blade from the ground, Wander started to run, gritting his teeth in aggravation.

_So how am I supposed to kill this thing when I can't even climb it?! _He thought angrily, but the voice of Dormin came to the rescue.

_**The armor it wears seems brittle... **_said the voice in his mind, before fading.

_Wait, what? _Wander took a closer look at the cuff as he ran. Now that he inspected it closely, the front of it appeared to be black and crumbling.

_Well, that's that part down, now I just need a way to break it._

Fortune must have been with him that day, for he saw something he hadn't before: A plate of stone set in the centre of the platform. He didn't care why this was there, he just needed to know if he could use it somehow.

Sending an arrow flying past the Colossus' head to distract it, he made a break for the plate. Once he got there, he knelt down, shutting his quiver and tapping the rock with a knuckle.

_If the Colossus hits this with its sword, the resonance could... that's it! _

Wander whistled at the knight to regain its attention. The beast stomped towards him, but he held his ground. When the knight raised its sword, he took off, running faster than he ever had. The air screamed as the pillar descended.

The Colossus realized too late it had tricked, its sword hit the stone dead- on... And the price it paid for failing to kill Wander was far greater this time.

The front of the cuff exploded, the creature looking at its arm with an seemingly bewildered expression. Wander cheered in joy at the sight, but his expression became determined quickly.

After all, only half the battle had been won.

He baited the knight into striking the earth a third time, running up the sword- pillar while it was stuck. Quick as a flash he climbed the Colossus' arm, taking a short rest on the remnants of the cuff.

Jumping from the cuff to the platform that circled the beast's waist was difficult, but he managed. Stabbing the Sigil took quite a bit of effort and time. With every step the hundred- sixty ton Colossus took, Wander flailed about. It seemed the only time he could reliably get stabs off was when the beast stopped walking to shake.

After three stabs, the Sigil vanished, and Wander once again was covered in black blood.

Adrenaline coursing through him, he jumped back onto the Colossus' sword- arm, climbing to the head, where he was sure the death Sigil awaited.

He plunged his sword into the glowing spot, clinging on for dear life as the beast tried to dislodge him. Right as he prepared the final blow, the setting sun bathed everything in a warm orange glow, causing the Colossus' fur to shimmer like it really _was_ made of silver. The creature's would- be murderer hesitated.

Did he really have the right to slay such a majestic being, even if it _had _tried to kill him? This feeling stayed with him as he stabbed down, finally ending the battle.

The knight let out one more moan and began its ninety- seven foot fall. Unfortunately for Wander, the Colossus had walked to edge of the platform just before he killed it, and its head was now dangling over the lip.

Wander hung there, the lake so far below, his tired muscles screaming. The black shroud covered the creature's corpse.

_Oh, no..._

Wander frantically tried to pull himself up, but it was too late. The tentacles stabbed into his back, his body going numb.

There was no scream as his unconscious, limp body plunged into the lake below...

**A/N: I warned you, didn't I? I don't even know **_**why**_** exactly I put that in there, just me being morbid, I guess :p. Anyway, it will be explained in the second-to-last chapter why this is happening to Wander (unless you've played the game and have already figured it out, in which case I respectfully ask you to not spoil it), assuming, of course, I make it that far. *crosses fingers***


	5. Dark dreams

**A/N: Some mildly disturbing content ahead.**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_**By: **_**Rylek196**

The Fourth: Equus Prime, Phaedra

Three shadowy beings who were nearly invisible in the dark of night kept watch over Wander as he lay in Dormin's circle of light. The Idol of the third Colossus glowed brightly in the gloom, and exploded.

Wander shook his head, groaning as he awoke. Barely making it to one knee, he winced as his now stiff muscles ached. He had officially pushed himself to the limit. Fighting no less than three enormous monsters non-stop was all he could take.

His limbs were more sore than he could ever remember them being, his eyelids were lead weights, and his empty stomach cried out for sustenance.

Dormin, however, did not seem to realize or care about the condition Wander was in, beginning to speak.

"**Thy next foe is..." **he began, but was cut off by Wander. "Dormin, please... not now..."

Being interrupted was not something Dormin was used to, but he held his anger in check. Given his situation, he could do nothing to Wander. Instead, he opted to act confused, replying, **"What..? Dost thy not wish to complete thy task?" **

"I do," Wander said. "More than anything in the world... but I'm so exhausted... Besides," he added, "it's dark out, I wouldn't be able to find the next Colossus even if I tried."

"**Hmm... very well," **Dormin said, **"Thou shall continue on the morrow..." **

Wander called for Agro in a hoarse voice, knowing the equine wouldn't be too far away. Sure enough, Agro came galloping into the Shrine not five seconds later.

The horse, sensing how tired her new master was, lay down next to him. Curling up against her, Wander closed his eyes and within minutes, was fast asleep.

...However, all was not well in his dreams...

As Wander slept, a twisted nightmare took shape in his mind.

He saw himself on that fateful day, struggling against the guards as they held him back. He screamed out in protest when Lord Emon, a respected priest and shaman in his village, gave his ritualistic speech, claiming Mono was 'cursed'. The shaman had said that he had received a vision from the gods, and they told him if the young woman was allowed to live, she would bring doom to them all, bearing 'children of the devil'.

Wander then watched, horrified and helpless, as his unconscious lover's neck was snapped.

Wander's sleeping face contorted in agony. The nightmare kept going, pulling him down deeper into despair...

He finally escaped the guard's grips on his arms after the deed was done. Running up to Mono, he cradled her corpse, kneeling there for hours, crying, sobbing until he almost dehydrated himself.

The scene changed then, showing his theft of the Ancient Sword and Agro. Then he saw the earth-covered bodies of the three innocent Colossi, dead by his own hand. All of a sudden, the scene changed again. He was now looking at a towering monolith of a living being yards away.

"_**This is the end for you, foolish child." **_A thundering voice echoed in his mind, and it occurred to him the beast was speaking. _**"There is no beyond for you..." **_The voice continued, and without warning, the beast raised its arm and shot a bolt of white- hot energy out of its palm at him. The bolt streaked across the sky at blinding speed, leaving no time to dodge.

Wander had just enough time to scream before the bolt hit him with the force of an artillery shell, simultaneously blasting him to pieces and burning the pieces to ash...

Wander woke with a scream, soaked in cold sweat. His exclamation of fear caused Agro to also awaken with a frightened neigh. He breathed heavily, still in Dormin's light where he had fallen asleep. To make sure he was still in one piece, he patted himself down. Looking around frantically, he saw he he was still in the Shrine... and still alive.

_Then... I'm not dead... But by God, that seemed so real... _

His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness outside Dormin's light circle. It was still nighttime, the sun having yet to show its face on the horizon.

Wander rubbed the sleep from his eyes and wiped the sweat off his forehead, reassuring Agro he was alright. The horse simply snorted and lay down again, closing her eyes.

Knowing he wasn't going to get any more sleep, he pulled the Ancient Sword from its sheath, looking over the blade and thinking.

In the days following Mono's sacrifice, he had plunged into study, secretly going over every restricted book he could get his hands on. Several made vague references to a 'Forbidden Land', one which housed the power to resurrect the dead. But, they held no concrete information. Right as he was about to give up, he had found it.

In the oldest book he could find, the power was named. The book spoke of a deity called Dormin, who, according to the tome, could reverse even death. It also made mention that the Ancient Sword was critical to the process, so Wander had stolen it in the dead of night. Best of all, the book contained detailed instructions on how exactly to get to the Forbidden Lands. Just to make sure he couldn't be followed easily, he had committed the guide to memory, then burned the book.

Abruptly, his stomach growled, drawing him out of his reverie. Having not eaten for a full day (he had exhausted his supply of provisions a few hours before he crossed the bridge), he was famished. Standing up, he walked to the steps leading out of the Shrine.

Outside of Dormin's circle of light, it was pitch-black. Wander looked back into the Shrine. Dormin's light was casting spooky shadows onto the statues of the remaining Colossi, making them seem demonic.

He sighed and walked back to a sleeping Agro. Obviously, he couldn't go outside at this hour, so he would just have to put up with the hunger for now. Leaning up against Agro again, he thought now about the Forbidden Land. One thing that unnerved him was that there was no noise from any wildlife- no hoots from owls, no chirps of crickets or other insects, _nothing._

_And then there's that nightmare... _Wander thought. _Why is this happening to me? First visions whenever I go under the bridge, now this..._

_Do not trouble yourself over such trivial matters_, a voice in his mind said. Wander froze, then he relaxed. Something about the voice he found incredibly soothing, so he listened to it without a second thought.

After a few more hours, the sun began to appear on the horizon, warming the earth and illuminating the world. Dawn had arrived, and Wander could finally see more than what Dormin's light allowed him to.

Dormin, for his part, began to speak, sounding somewhat impatient, though this was lost on Wander, who barely heard him over his rumbling stomach.

"**Thy next foe is... In the land of vast green fields... Rows of guiding graves... It is a giant indeed, but fearful, it is not..."**

Dormin's voice faded like it was so wont to do, leaving Wander with yet another cryptic clue.

Wander wasn't too keen on taking down a Colossus without food in his belly, so instead of holding his sword up when he went outside, he surveyed the landscape with his eyes- and then he saw it.

The 'it' was something he had almost completely ignored on his way to the first Colossus, but now it held far greater value. What Wander had his gaze fixated on was the tree that stood proud and tall halfway to where he had fought the first Colossus.

_If that tree is what I think it is..._

Wander turned and ran to Agro, calling her name to wake the sleeping horse all the while. The equine lazily got to her feet and stretched, letting out a surprised neigh when Wander climbed into her saddle.

"Let's go girl," Wander said. "I think I've found us breakfast."

Agro tore across the plain, little more than a blur as she ran. Arriving at the tree, Wander was overjoyed to see his hunch had been correct. The tree was a fruit- tree, and hanging from its branches were several pieces of fruit that looked like oversized pears.

Quickly stretching his still sore muscles, Wander climbed the moss- covered back of the tree, shaking the branches when he got to the top, causing fruit to rain down.

He got down from the tree, ravenously starting to devour the sweet- tasting fruit, juice dripping down his chin.

A white- tailed lizard, attracted to the smell of the fruit, crawled from its nest to nibble on it, and was promptly impaled on the blade of Wander's sword.

Several smaller trees surrounded the large one, Wander used some wood off of these to make a fire. Taking a piece of flint from Agro's saddlebag, he struck the blade of his sword against it, creating a shower of sparks.

The sparks caught on the pile of makeshift kindling, and soon a fire was going. The dead lizard was roasted and eaten in short order.

Now full of fruit and meat (and after sharing some with Agro), Wander held his sword up to the light.

When he was trying to make the beam appear though, he saw something unusual. It seemed to be a pillar of light, spearing up into the sky, right where Wander had fought the first Colossus._ First the bodies become one with the earth, now this? _Wander thought._ Just how much stranger can these things get?_

Finally finding a direction that made the beam show up (roughly southeast) he mounted Agro and headed off.

Meanwhile, in the Shrine, Dormin sensed the pair ride off. _**This mortal is troublesome... **_Dormin thought to himself. _**Still... he cannot be allowed to die. After all, he is the only key to our release...**_

Finding the Colossus' lair was a simple matter; the light pointed to a narrow opening in a cliff wall.

The sword's light beam dimmed as soon as Wander entered the path. This, along with the thick fog, had him extremely concerned about getting lost.

It turned out he needn't have worried, the path was entirely linear.

The pair emerged at a hill under a huge overhanging rock that overlooked a misty, verdant alcove covered in dark green grass. Wander carefully rode Agro down a narrow path jutting out of a rock wall to his right.

When he got to the bottom, the sound of rushing water met his ears, possibly from a nearby waterfall or small river, though he couldn't see either.

Also of note were stone mounds, four of them, all placed in a cross pattern. _Could these be... burial mounds? _Wander thought, peering into one. The mound had an entrance, a set of stairs leading down into the earth could be seen. The stairs led to tunnels that could only be catacombs.

Trying to shake off the sense of unease that thought brought with it, he kept riding. The uneasiness tripled when he saw what he presumed to be his opponent. Currently, the Colossus sat unmoving on a rectangular stone plate set in the ground. Wander's unease turned to nervousness as he got closer, then to full-on panic when the creature opened its eyes and stood up.

The Colossus this time resembled a horse. Just that description, however, would be doing this creature an injustice.

Its head loosely resembled a ceremonial dragon mixed with a horse; the 'feet' on the ends of its stone legs were pointed like the ends of spears. Two braids of greenish fur hung from either side of its head, the same fur ran in thick stripe along its back, and on its underbelly, a ribcage of stone was left grotesquely exposed.

Wander turned Agro around and rode her to the nearest mound as the Colossus lumbered toward them. He dismounted her quickly and ran into the tunnel, as much as the thought of going into catacombs disgusted him.

Much to his surprise and relief, there were no skulls to found in the tunnel, just grey stone walls. Placing one hand on the wall to avoid getting disoriented in the darkness, he continued onwards.

The ceiling shook and dust fell as the Colossus tramped about above him, making him nervous the tunnel would cave in. When that didn't happen, and the shaking stopped, he sighed in relief. He kept going, his hand still on the wall, until he saw a ray of light. Following this new found illumination, he came across a flight of stairs, identical to the ones he taken to get into the tunnel system.

Emerging out from underground, he peeked over the lowest part of the hill. The Colossus was still stomping around the north hill, apparently trying to flush him out. After a few moments, it squatted down, lowering its head to the tunnel entrance.

As it did this, its short stone tail hung low to the ground, just enough for Wander to grab if he jumped. Wander now had his way onto the beast. He ran out of his hiding place, sprinting quickly but quietly across the field to the north hill.

The Colossus was too engrossed in searching for Wander to notice its foe was running up behind it. The beast abruptly felt a weight on its tail, lifting it up again. Wander clamoured up the two handholds on the horse-creature's stone tail. The beast shook its rear end from side to side as Wander began climbing the fur above its tail. Wander gripped the fur ever tighter as he when he started swinging back and forth.

In due time, the horse eased its thrashing, allowing Wander to climb higher up the beast's back. He quickly reached a point on the monster where climbing vertically was no longer needed, so he unsteadily stood up, holding his sword up to the sunlight.

The beam shone straight ahead like the path of an arrow to its target, illuminating a teal crack on the horse's neck. _Another one of these? _Wander thought, right before the Colossus reared up on its hind legs, as if sensing a weak point had been unveiled; Wander cried out as he toppled backwards, losing his footing and falling. He reached out blindly with one hand as he fell, just managing to find a grip on the creature's fur.

He screamed in pain, his arm nearly being wrenched from its socket when his fall abruptly stopped. The beast's front legs landed back on the ground with an impact that shook the earth and made his teeth rattle in his skull.

Wander swore as the surface he was currently on became flat again, he had lost much of his progress in moving up the Colossus' back thanks to his fall.

Rubbing his wounded shoulder, he winced when a sharp pain shot though it at his touch. The horse- creature shook again, thrashing from side; luckily, Wander crouched down, grabbing fistfuls of fur in either hand, anchoring his body in place. The strain on his left shoulder was immense, but he grit his teeth, pushing the pain to the back of his mind, waiting for the beast to stop shaking.

It only lasted five seconds, but to Wander, it felt like five years. Once the Colossus stopped shaking, he began moving towards the beast's neck again. He made it there without any more major incidents, quickly stabbing the glowing crack. The horse-creature let out a shrill, whistle- like cry of pain, followed by what sounded like a snarl. Wander jammed his sword into the mark once more; this time, the Colossus lowered its neck, giving him access to the top of its head.

Predictably, the Major Sigil was there, it lit up automatically when Wander got close. Wander crouched down, raised his blade and drove it down with all his strength. However, it felt strange to be killing a horse-like creature in the presence of a real horse, as Agro was still on the ground. The beast gave again its shrill cry, shaking its head to and fro. Wander clung on, despite the pain in his shoulder, stabbing down again. He pulled out his blade, getting soaked in inky black blood. In a sick way, he was becoming used to being covered in the stuff, even if the thought made his stomach churn. Thrusting his blade into the Sigil once more, it was over.

A geyser of black blood erupted from the beast's head, the Colossus giving one last cry. Its back right leg buckled, its eyes went blank and dark, then it toppled over onto its side. Once the head was on the ground, Wander jumped off the corpse. _Another _animal _killed. _He thought_ Why am I doing this? Is it really worth it? _

Before he could explore that train of thought any further, the black shroud covered the horse- creature's body, the tentacles headed right for him. He turn around just in time to see a black blur, then his body went numb. He saw the white, heavenly light and heard another noise. This time, it sounded like a baby taking it's first breaths...

* * *

**A/N: Oh, that nightmare sequence. Back when I first drafted ideas for this, that was one of the original snippets I wrote down on paper. It was used in its original form in the first version of this story, but now I've added a ton more detail. There will be more nightmares. Trust me when I say this, I'm gonna put Wander through mental HELL. Also, about the day/night cycle: I decided on doing this before I even wrote this story the first time. Frankly, I don't care that the Forbidden Land is cursed with 'eternal sunlight/daytime' or whatever. Simple fact is, no matter where you are on any world, the sun's gonna go down, and besides, Wander needs sleep. Remember, he's a human being (albeit one with barely any conscience) in this, not a video game character. **


	6. Taking to the air

**A/N: This chapter has not been revised, and it probably never will be. Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Yami no Nokutan, who actually wrote a (now undeservedly deleted) **** Zelda songfic for me. By the way, listening to A Despair-Filled Farewell is pretty much required to get the full effect from this chapter.**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_**By: **_**Rylek196**

The Fifth: Delta Phoenix, Avion

Four shadows now stood around Wander as he lay in the Shrine yet again. Behind the group, in the hallway containing the alcoves with the Colossi Idols, the Idol of the fourth Colossus exploded to pieces.

Agro walked up the stairs to the alter where Mono lay. Wander got up from lying on the ground, noticing Agro. Once more, the shadowy figures had disappeared just before he could see them. He rubbed his still-sore shoulder, starting to question exactly _how_ she was able to make it back to the Shrine so fast, but before he could even process that thought, the voice silenced it.

_Why is it of any importance how your steed gets back here before you do? _The voice whispered in his mind, louder than ever before._ It means you can have a convenient means of travel to the next Colossus as soon as _you_ get back, _the voice added. Wander couldn't argue with that logic, and for some strange reason, he didn't want to. Walking up beside Agro, he patted the side of her head, gazing lovingly down at Mono's peacefully resting face. Seeing her condition had improved, he smiled. _I promise you, Mono, you'll be back with me soon, _he thought.

A sudden noise caused Agro to neigh in fear; she backed up a few steps. Wander turned around as the guttural voice of Dormin echoed throughout the Shrine.

"**Thy next foe is... **

**It casts a colossal shadow across a misty lake... as it soars through the** **sky... **

**To reach it is no easy task..." **

As was always the case with Dormin, his voice faded, leaving Wander be. _'Soars through the sky', hmm? _Wander thought. Going outside and holding his sword up to the light, he saw the beam once more pointed east.

However, as he held his blade skyward, his shoulder gave an annoying twinge of pain._ I'll have to be more careful with this fight. _ Mounting Agro, he once more made for the east. Once the horse was gone from the Shrine, four doves landed around the alter where Mono lay. As Agro tore across the landscape at a breakneck pace, a bird, possibly an eagle, soared above horse and rider for a short distance before screeching and flying off.

To Wander, the bird's cry sounded almost mournful, like it was trying to warn him, but he shrugged off the ominous feeling. He continued travelling for a few minutes until he came to a tree, standing alone overlooking a steep cliff side drop into a raging river below. Rearing Agro to a halt, he gave the tree a quick inspection, only to see (to his dismay) that it was bare of fruit, seeing as it was deciduous.

_Ah, well,_ he thought, _I could always use it for firewood, if I ever need any._

From there, the way forward degraded into a narrow cliff-side path; he had to manoeuvre Agro carefully so as to not fall. Fortunately, the path wasn't all that long and soon opened into a small plain where lizards crawled around freely. A crumbling, but still fairly large, shrine was towards the back of the plain, so Wander stopped to give a quick prayer out of respect. As he lowered his head to give thanks for the fact that he was still alive after fighting four enormous monsters, he was hit with the most peculiar sensation. It actually felt like the location of the shrine was being etched into his memory. It lasted only a second, but when it was over, Wander felt as if he knew the lay of the small area of land like he had lived there all his life.

With that done, he mounted Agro yet again, held his sword up to the sun to reaffirm where he was going- though not without another jab of pain in his shoulder- and made off. The light was pointing in the general direction of a short, narrow pass between two rock faces that rose hundreds of feet into the air on either side. Going into this pass, he was met with the sight of another ancient structure. This time, it was partially submerged underwater, but the part Wander could see resembled a crumbling bridge. Moss hung in sheets from the building, swaying gently in the cool breeze. A light mist had settled over the area as soon as Wander entered it.

There was a pool of water of unknown depth leading to the structure. Wander dismounted Agro and waded into it, shivering at the crisp temperature. _Why is water in this land always so bloody cold?_ he mentally whined, shivering. He swam the short distance to the mysterious building, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder as he did so. He had to swim under a massive, underwater archway to gain access to the structure proper. Wander emerged in a small, square, water- filled area, in the middle of which was a single large pillar with eight small ledges on it.

He swam up to this pillar and, surprisingly, stepped on a bigger ledge that was about three feet below water and went halfway around the pillar's circumference. Wander was still waist-high in cold water, but at least getting to the smaller handholds was now manageable.

Bracing himself for more agony, he jumped out of the water and grabbed the ledge closest to the platform he was standing on. There was a sudden flare of pain in his left shoulder, but he grit his teeth and forced himself to keep holding on. _For Mono's sake, _he kept telling himself. _For Mono._ He jumped up to the next ledge, and the one above that, the pain only growing worse. Just as it became too much to bear, he reached the top of the pillar. Wincing in pain, he stood up. Sopping wet, he walked along a bridge, hemmed in on his left and right by tall, rusted iron fencing. _If only the bridge to the Forbidden Lands had something like this,_ he thought wryly.

Ascending up a short flight of stairs, he was greeted by a noise like a tornado.

Looking up, he caught a glimpse of a massive, kite-like shape soar overhead. The shape banked into a turn as it flew over a huge, lake with many ancient building and structures jutting out of its surface. The lake was surrounded on all sides by a wall of rock. When it touched down on a gigantic stone pillar some yards away, it was still somewhat obscured by the mist on the lake. Wander couldn't see any fine details, but could make out enough to determine his opponent was avian. Either way, just getting to the Colossus was presenting a problem in itself.

"There is no way I can climb that pillar," Wander thought aloud. "So how am I going to...?" It was then that he noticed a large hole in the left corner of the hemmed-in lookout he was standing in. He gulped as he looked down. It may have been a drop into water, but it was still a thirty foot drop or more.

Taking one last look at the Colossus, and steeling himself for the fall, Wander stepped off the edge and dropped. Hitting the cold water felt like a slap, but he quickly regained his senses and swam to the surface, gasping in a lungful of air. In order to avoid further pain when swimming, he used only his right arm and his legs to paddle, using his left as little as possible. Making his way across was slow going, but at least the water dulled the shoulder pain. He could make out three small platforms of stone peeking just above the water's surface. Relieved, he made his way over to those. Climbing out of the water onto the block in the centre, he shivered. Rubbing his hands together to get some heat from the friction, he turned his gaze to the Colossus.

Now that he was closer, he could get a better look at it and make out details. Wander had been right in his assumption that his foe was avian. The creature this time was indeed a giant bird. A furry tail of easily fifty feet long hung over the pillar where it was perched. Its enormous wings of fur and stone where currently folded at its sides. The young man was stunned, but the shock melted into puzzlement quickly. _Why hasn't it attacked me yet?_ He thought._ It could have picked me off while I swimming over here, but it didn't. _

Whatever the reason for the Colossus' indifference to him, he knew he had to get its attention somehow. Yelling at it didn't work. Nor did whistling, waving his arms, or some combination of the three. _Dormin was right, _Wander thought, _There really _is _no easy way to reach this thing._

Fingering the bow on his back, he thought, _Well, there still is one thing I haven't tried. _

He took the bow off his back, undid the animalskin cover on his quiver, pulled out an arrow, and notched it. However, just as he was about to launch the arrow at the giant bird, he hesitated. _Should I really be doing this? _he debated in his mind. _I've done nothing but take innocent lives! I mean, look at it! It's done nothing to me so far, and it probably never will unless I shoot it. _

Wander then thought of Mono, saw her smile in his mind's eye, reminding him of why he was doing what he was doing. Pulling the bowstring back tighter, he whispered, "I'm sorry..." to the bird just as he released the arrow. It flew straight and true, embedding itself deep in the Colossus' mossy green fur. Instantaneously, the bird whipped its head towards where Wander was standing, and its eyes turned orange. With an ear-piercing screech, the creature took off from its perch, dive-bombing down, aiming to smash its bulk into Wander to end its attacker's life.

Wander just barely had enough time to shut his quiver before jumping back into the lake with a cry to avoid the bird's swoop. Seeing that it had missed, the bird screeched in anger and began circling around, waiting for its aggressor to show himself again.

Said aggressor clamoured back onto the stone block, shivering from the chilly lake water. The beast, having gotten a lock on Wander's position, swooped down again, determined to end him.

Wander saw it coming, and made up his mind. He would not jump in the lake this time. He stowed his bow away, getting ready to jump. Thinking it ironic that the bird's attack would likely be its downfall, and gathering all the courage he had, he leaped as soon the fur on the beast's wing joint was within ten feet of him.

The impact of hitting the wall of fur nearly drove the breath from his lungs, but he stubbornly refused to let go. He felt the sensation of his stomach going into his throat as the Colossus gained height. It flapped its wings, making Wander flail about like a ragdoll and putting immeasurable strain on his already taxed shoulder. After the bird had gained sufficient height (which was a hundred feet above the lake) it stopped flapping its wings, allowing Wander to climb the fur and get on the creature's back.

The rushing air chilled his soaked body even more, and it threatened to blow him right off of the Colossus. It suddenly banked into a turn to keep from crashing into the rock wall, going almost completely vertical. When this started happening, Wander held on tight to its fur, for he knew if he _did_ fall, hitting the water would mean death. Once the bird's back became a flat surface again, he put his bow away and held his sword up to the sun. The beam this time revealed a Sigil on the tip of the bird's long tail.

With the wind at his at his back, Wander cautiously began to move toward the back the beast's tail. It was very slow going, as the Colossus constantly banked into turns, making Wander grab on to keep from falling off. Otherwise, the bird did nothing to shake him.

Eventually making it to the Sigil, Wander held tight with one hand and raised his sword with the other, plunging it into the glowing mark. The bird squealed in pain, but oddly, didn't thrash or shake its tail from side to side like he was expecting.

He pulled his blade from the creature's flesh, and was promptly covered in inky black blood.

Since the Colossus didn't seem to be resisting, he was free to take another stab. Doing this didn't come without guilt, however. Wander was murdering a living creature that was, by all accounts, harmless. Yanking his blade out again (and after getting covered in blood for what he was sure was the hundredth time), the Sigil disappeared. Wander knew there had to be more Sigils, given how the beast was still alive. He turned his body around to face the front of the bird.

Still holding on with one hand, he held his blade up again.

This time, the beam lit up a Sigil on the furry tip of the bird's right wing. Moving the sword around, he saw another Sigil in the exact same place on the left wing. _Well, this should be fun._

Carefully standing up, he tried to move towards the bird's back once more. There was one problem with this though: the wind, which had been at his back before, was now against him. Running felt like trying to wade through waist-deep water. Wander felt his leg muscles become jelly-like very quickly.

Squinting through the rushing wind, he could feel the skin on his cheeks start to peel back around his teeth. Unfortunately, before he could get onto one of the wings, the bird started flapping them, forcing him to crouch down and hold on, waiting for it to stop. After banking into yet another turn, the bird levelled out, giving Wander access to the wings. Using extreme caution, he slowly made his way to the tip.

Praying to heaven that the bird wouldn't turn, he crouched down onto the fur. With the Sigil glowing underneath him, he quickly thrust his blade into it. The Colossus again squealed in pain, flapping its wings and spasming in mid-air.

In a seeming bid to try and shake Wander off, the beast even performed an aileron roll. Wander nearly threw up as he was subjected to this stomach-churning manoeuvre. When the beast settled, he stabbed down again. The Colossus made another roll, Wander trying to keep the contents of his stomach down.

At the apex of the roll, when the wing was pointing almost entirely vertically, Wander's grip slipped. He screamed as he fell, knowing that when he hit water, every bone in his body would shatter, killing him instantly.

Imagine his surprise then when he landed on the bird's tail with a hard _THUMP_. Unbelievably, the wind had pushed him back as he fell, so was right in line with the creature's long tail. Opening his eyes, Wander was amazed at how lucky he had been.

_If this thing wasn't still turning as I fell..._

Checking to make sure the Sigil was gone- it was- Wander once more made his way to the final Sigil; the one on the left wingtip. Droplets of black blood flew off of him in the wind as he made his way up the tail and onto the left wing.

He stabbed at the final Sigil once, enduring yet another aileron roll, gripping as tightly as he possibly could through it, knowing he wouldn't get as lucky a second time. Stabbing down again, it was over. The bird squealed in pain one last time, and began to fall from the sky into the lake. Wander felt an overwhelming sense of guilt even as he clung to the wing for dear life. The corpse of the Colossus crash-landed in the lake with a tremendous splash. Water was thrown forty feet in the air. Wander surfaced, feeling traumatized. _Did I really just do that?_ He thought.

The tentacles, as always, homed in on him and seeped into him, making his body go numb.

He saw the white light, heard the strange breathing, but this time, he heard a muffled sound, distinctly resembling his name...

* * *

**A/N: A little bit about the move that Wander pulled off (even if it was by pure chance). I wasn't able to do this myself, but if you want to see it done, I recommend checking out part 5 of Lancun's Hard Mode Let's Play of this game. (By the way, an aileron roll is the **_**proper **_**term for a barrel roll; thank you Game Theory). I know I made Avion a bit more aggressive than in the game, but if someone shot you with a friggin' ARROW, you'd be pretty pissed to, am I right?**

**While on the subject of Avion, I have seen a video of what happens to its corpse. I forget the name of the video, but the uploader's username is Nomad Colossus. What happens is that the body sinks to the bottom of the lake, then slowly floats to the top. Needless to say, it's pretty disturbing stuff. I did have a preliminary snippet for this battle written out on paper long before I started this chapter, but it had to be scrapped because of what happened to Wander's shoulder in chapter 4. I'll post it on my profile, maybe some of you will like it.**


	7. The Goliath

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_**By: Rylek196**_

* * *

The Sixth: The Goliath, Barba

Now there were five shadows that watched over Wander as he, for the fifth time, lay unconscious in Dormin's light. Oddly, one of the shadow beings was shorter than the rest, who were generally about the same height. Farther back in the Shrine, in the third alcove on the right side, the statue of the bird Colossus exploded. Wander shook his head as he awoke_. I really hope this doesn't become a routine,_ he thought, groaning as he rose to his feet on shaky legs.

He looked up at Dormin's light as the strange being began to speak.

"**Thy next foe is… a giant lurks underneath the temple… It lusts for destruction, but a fool, it is not."**

The voice faded once again, leaving Wander alone. Wander walked up the steps to the alter where Mono lay, scaring a small flock of five doves around her. Her face was still incredibly pale, but the color had returned to her hands and feet, at least.

Wander looked at the now-crumbled remains of the bird Colossus' Idol. Killing a creature as peaceful as that bird had started to make him reconsider whether it was all worth it. It was, after all, sixteen lives for one.

_Of course it is worth it,_ the voice chided him in his mind. _You are willing to go through whatever it takes for her, are you not?_

"Yes," Wander answered to no one in particular.

_Then_ _MOVE_. The last word was spoken louder and with more force than Wander had ever heard from the voice, and it slightly scared him. Nevertheless, he went outside and held his blade up. His shoulder joint gave a slight twinge, but it was nowhere near as bad as before.

_Well, that's some good news, at least._

The beam this time pointed the direction he happened to be facing- west. Going back inside and mounting Agro as he always did, he made for the west. With the speed Agro was running, the trip across the plain was a short one, soon he had arrived at a forest filled with deciduous trees. Sunlight peeked in between the treetops in places, and dead, fallen leaves crunched under Agro's feet as she moved.

To avoid smashing headlong into a tree, Wander pulled back on the reins, slowing the horse to a walk. The pair made their way deeper into the woods, Wander holding up his sword on occasion to get some sense of where they were going. Doing this however, proved to be useless. All that he got was a weak, sputtering yellow beam, similar to what happened when he was fighting the knight.

Worse yet, the forest, while small, was extremely disorienting. Already, Wander couldn't tell where he even come in, let alone where he was supposed to go. At one point, he used the light coming in from the gaps in the tree canopy to get a better idea of his destination. A slightly more pronounced beam burst forth from the sword's blade, pointing straight ahead. Excited by the prospect of finally getting somewhere, Wander spurred Agro on, riding to where he was sure was the exit... Only to have his hopes die within him as he got closer. He was headed for nothing more then a gap in the semi-circular wall of rock surrounding the forest.

Wander was forced to rear his steed to a sudden halt so as to not go racing right through it. Angrily dismounting Agro, he stood in the sunlight the gap afforded and held his blade up. The beam shot forward, full and strong like a laser, pointing to a mountain he could see in the distance. Directly below him was a shallow lagoon, a single fruit-tree in the middle of it. As far as he could tell, though, he couldn't jump down into the lagoon without breaking something, and there seemed to be no way out of it anyway.

_So,_ Wander mentally seethed. _We have: a forest I can't find my way out of, a Colossus I can't get to, and food I can't even eat because it's out of reach. This is just great. _

Cursing, he hopped off the rock he was standing on, ready to try to find a way out of the forest and find an alternate path to the Colossus, but then he saw it.

It was a white spire from what he could tell, seeing as it was partially hidden by trees. Whatever it was, it was definitely man-made. Wander mounted Agro and raced toward the mysterious shape, hoping it was what he thought it was. As he got closer, his assumptions were confirmed; it _was_ a shrine; identical save its color to the one he encountered on his way to the bird Colossus.

Feeling a hint of regret at the thought of the bird, he nonetheless took a knee in front of the shrine in prayer. Instantly, the strange sensation washed over him again, but when it was done, the entirety of the forest area was etched into his mind.

_These shrines must have built by ancient people to chart the land,_ Wander realized._ Every time I see one, I'll have to stop._

Thanks to his new knowledge of the forest, he now knew there was a path in the northwestern part of the woods leading out. Hastily riding over, he crossed a short natural bridge, hewn by the elements, through a cave, and emerged into a vast desert. The sun was blinding, the wind whipped up sand harshly and the heat was intense. Luckily for Wander, his sword's light told him his destination was close- just a short ride south. Arriving at a massive temple built into the mountain he had seen earlier, he hopped off Agro, as there were fallen pillars blocking the entrance.

Wander reached into Agro's saddlebag for his water-skin, took a drink, and put it back.

"Sorry, girl," he said as he climbed over the pillars. "Just stay here, don't try to go back through that forest or you'll get lost."

The horse was currently looking at him with what seemed like concern. Wander put his arm over the obstacle, stroking Agro's face. "I'll be fine," he reassured her, then turned and walked down the stairs into the subterranean temple.

Three more sets of fallen pillars blocked his path in the hallway he found himself in, all of which he clambered over with ease. _Can't get too cocky, though,_ he reminded himself, _the Colossus will be much, _much _more difficult._ After going down one more flight of stairs, the hallway opened up into the temple proper.

It was a gigantic, cavernous room, divided in half by a single pillar that looked like a capital 'T' with a curved top. Light spilled in from a jagged hole in the roof farther in.

Wander was stunned. So caught up was he in wondering how this place was architecturally possible that he nearly fell to his doom. At the last second, he realized he was two steps away from walking right over the edge of a cliff-like wall in front of him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he cautiously peered over edge.

Estimating it was at least ninety feet down, he stepped away, then forward again, having seen something. Getting down on his belly and letting his head hang over the man-made cliff, he saw the wall was built with ledges, lots of them, placed every few feet.

Now, getting down the wall wasn't too much of a hassle. In less than two minutes, he had climbed down. Pulling out his sword, Wander advanced into the massive space.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of stone on stone... the sound of the wall he had just gone down retracting into the floor.

Wander didn't turn around. He didn't want to. He knew what was going to be behind him, and didn't want to face it. But when he heard and felt the first thundering footstep, he did turn, promptly wishing he hadn't.

The humanoid Colossus that had emerged from behind the wall, while not as tall as the third, was still tall enough to put the first to shame. On top of that, its build was much thicker, with enormous biceps and hands that could level houses. Its stone 'face' looked oddly vacant, like it had nothing on its mind, and a huge beard of silver- grey fur hung from the monster's chin.

Wander fled for his life as the creature continued its surprisingly fast gait on its chunky back-jointed legs.

Unfortunately, there was an obstacle in his path: namely, a ten- foot- high wall that prevented him from going any further. Wander looked around desperately for any way to scale the wall, knowing the Colossus was only steps away from flattening him. Just before Wander resigned himself to his fate, he saw his salvation. There were carvings resembling giant soup pots with their lids on placed at regular intervals along the walls. In addition, these were placed in such a way that the wall could be climbed. Best of all, he could reach these structures if he jumped.

With the giant not a step away, Wander jumped up to the carving, grabbing the edge and hauling himself up on top of it. The drop from the top of the wall to the ground was still ten feet, but it was drop down or get flattened. Wisely choosing to jump down, Wander saw yet another wall, identical to the one he had just climbed over, ahead. As Wander sprinted toward the second wall, the Colossus simply walked through the first one like it wasn't even there and kept going.

His heart rate intensifying, he climbed this wall, running toward a _third _one. He turned his head as he ran, just time to see the beast bring a huge fist down on the second wall, crushing it to pieces. The shockwave from the impact knocked Wander off his feet, but he quickly got back up, climbing the third wall and stood atop it. Now he was under the hole in the roof, directly in the sun's glow. Feeling the Colossus was far enough away (even though it was getting closer by the second), to highlight its Sigils, he held his blade skyward.

The beam, as always, appeared. Moving the sword to manipulate the beam, a Sigil showed its face on the top of the creature's head. That was all he had time for, because the beast was nearly on top of him. He jumped off the wall just as the Colossus smashed right through it.

Just ahead was an elaborately carved multi-level wall, looking like a section of a coliseum.

Not being able to reach the higher levels (not that there was any advantage to being in them anyway), Wander ran inside the ground floor of the coliseum-wall. The wall was nothing more than a shallow cave; a dead end. Wander began to panic as he realized he was effectively trapped. He did the only thing he could do in his situation- hide behind one of the support pillars and hope the beast wouldn't notice him.

Hearing the creature's booming footsteps outside, he prayed to all the deities he knew of that the Colossus wouldn't bring down the wall in its search for him. Fate must have been smiling upon him that day, for nothing like that happened.

Gathering his courage, poked his head out, discovering the beast _was facing to the left, completely oblivious to his presence! _

"You really need to be more accurate with your descriptions, Dormin," Wander muttered under his breath.

Figuring now was as good a time as any to look for the beast's weak points; he stealthily stepped out of his hiding place. With the beast's back still turned, he held his sword up, highlighting a Sigil on the lower left of its back.

By now, the creature had caught on to the fact that its quarry was right behind it, and turned around. As it did this, the light from Wander's sword lit up another Sigil on the- "What?"- Back of its right hand. (The Colossus' left).

Wander ran back inside to his hiding place as the bearded Colossus raised its cloven hoof to smash him into the ground. Dive-rolling to gain some extra distance quickly, he made it back inside just as the hoof made impact, which was still enough to knock him off his feet again. He pushed himself to his feet, brushing dust off his clothing.

The Colossus then stupidly kneeled down to look for Wander, placing its Sigil- hand flat on the ground and giving Wander a golden opportunity. He once more ran out from his hiding place onto the furry back of the creature's hand. He managed to get in one stab, getting covered in blood in the process, but the beast shook its arm relentlessly, preventing him from taking another. Wander felt his arms grow tired very fast, so he decided to try a different method. Letting go of the beast's hand- luckily, the beast was incredibly lanky, so it wasn't too far a drop- he ran back to his hiding place.

To his bewilderment, the dumb beast actually lowered its head _again, _its beard almost brushing the ground.

_So apparently this thing has no object permanence, _Wander thought, then he smirked. _Good to know._

Again climbing onto the back of the Colossus' hand, he stabbed the Sigil a second time. The glowing mark vanished, Wander smiled grimly to himself despite his blood-covered face.

_One down, two to go._

His smile instantly withered and died when the Colossus shook its arm, flailing him around like a ragdoll.

Dropping off the hand once the giant stopped shaking it momentarily, Wander sprinted back to the coliseum-wall, his sandals slapping on the stone floor.

The beast keeled down a third time, its beard again almost touching the ground. Seeing no other way up the beast, Wander ran and jumped, grabbing a hold of the beard.

Feeling a weight on its chin, the Colossus pulled its head up, exactly as the fourth had done with its tail. Actually climbing up the beard was more of a challenge than Wander had anticipated, as every step the eighty-ton Colossus took caused him to shake about.

When he was high enough on the beard, he leaped from it to the beast's chest, climbing from there. It was a painfully difficult task, and he nearly lost his grip several times, but eventually, he made it up the beast's shoulder and up onto its hunched back.

Deciding he would focus on the back Sigil last, Wander made his way to the still-glowing mark atop the creature's skull. However, he noticed something different about this Sigil: it was angled more to the left of the Colossus' head.

He didn't have much time to ponder why this was, for the monster dipped its head down, getting ready to throw it back to fling Wander off. As soon as the beast started to dip down, he grabbed its fur, hoping to keep that from happening.

It barely worked. With a roar that sounded like similar to a bear, the Colossus tossed its head back with far more zeal and force than the first. Wander almost sprained his wrist as he was flung up and turned completely around on the beast's fur.

Trying his best to ignore the pain, he raised his sword, ready to stab as soon as the monster's head became level. With a grunt of both effort and pain, he plunged his blade into down into the creature's skull.

A geyser of black, ichorous blood spewed out of the wound, once again drenching Wander in it. Wiping some off his face- it was just one more thing that came with Colossi killing- he prepared to stab again. The Colossus, it seemed, had other plans, as it dipped its head down to thrash again. Wander was faster on the draw, stabbing down just before the beast threw its head back.

This canceled its attempt to shake, and through the blood spraying into his face, Wander saw the Sigil vanish. _Alright, two down, one to go._

Unfortunately for him, the final Sigil would be the most dangerous, with no place he could easily retreat to if he needed momentary reprieve- there was nothing but a forty foot drop. He began moving to the monster's left shoulder, jumping over its partially exposed, bony spine.

Bracing himself, he started climbing down the Colossus' back to get to the Sigil. The bearded beast would have none of it, thrashing its upper body from side to side. Wander cried out as he was whipped back and forth. When the beast stopped its shaking, he rapidly stabbed the Sigil, pulling his blade out and getting a spray of blood full in the face. Immediately, he spat the foul-tasting, inky liquid out of his mouth.

He readied what he was sure was the killing blow, stabbing almost exactly as the Colossus began to shake. Once more, man ended up being faster than beast.

As his sword penetrated the monster's flesh for the final time, Wander was overcome with a fresh wave of guilt. The Colossus roared in agony and fell forward, its murderer clinging on for dear life the whole time.

Something in the back of his mind said he should hide, get away from what he knew was coming, but it was too late. The tentacles seeped into him, his entire body going numb. Wander's mind couldn't even register the shock before everything went black.

* * *

**A/N: Hmm... I'm kinda iffy on this chapter. I like the environmental description, but I don't think adding the Hard Mode Sigil added anything. If anything, I think it just padded out the fight more. But MAN, I had to get real creative describing those short walls. I hate the architecture in this game. It's well designed, but it's so abstract and obtuse and hard to describe and rantrantrant. But yeah, anyways, that part when Wander stabs Barba right as its about to throw its head back? Actually happened to me. I told you this is (mostly) going off my own gameplay. This is the last of the chapters I have pre-written. Look for chapter 7: Hydrophobia, in the next few weeks. **


	8. Hydrophobia

**A/N: This chapter was completely revised (read: rewritten from scratch) on 3/30/2015. As said in the original Author's Note, Hydrus has two subtitles/nicknames: Leviathan and Sea Dragon. As the subtitle 'Leviathan' is the one used on the SotC wiki, that is the one used here.**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

By: Rylek196

Chapter 7: Leviathan, Hydrus

Six shadows now gazed down upon Wander's motionless form as he lay in Dormin's light. A bit farther back in the Shrine, the Idol representing the bearded, humanoid Colossus shone white, and exploded. The shadows vanished as Wander began to stir.

"Yes," Wander groaned to no one in particular as he pushed himself to his feet, "This is definitely becoming a routine."

Looking up at Dormin's light, he received his next clue. **"Thy next foe is... A ruin hidden in the lake... A ripple of thunder lurks underwater..."**

The voice faded for the sixth time, and Wander was again left alone. Deciding to try something different to find this particular Colossus, he simply stood in the light Dormin gave off, and held up his blade. Like a reliable friend, the beam appeared. Unfortunately, it was pointing in the one direction Wander had hoped it would never point again: north. The mere thought of going under the bridge again, and being subjected to an even worse vision filled Wander with terror. He glanced back at Mono. When he first started this quest, he had told himself that no price was too great. Now, though, he was beginning to re-think that.

Regardless, he couldn't very well give up now, after coming all this way and getting through nearly half of the Colossi. He called for Agro, and mounted her. He had long since stopped questioning exactly _how _Agro got back to the Shrine so fast, only riding her out of the Shrine. When he was within a stone's throw of the giant bridge, he reared Agro to a halt, gazing up at it with a pale face.

He weighed his options. _If I go under that bridge again, I'll get another vision, which, judging by the last one, will be even _worse. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind, and Wander actually smacked himself on the forehead for not thinking of it sooner. He could always go around the left side of the Shrine, and avoid going under the bridge at all.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid..." Wander turned Agro around, spurring her on by gently kicking her sides, heading in the opposite direction around the Shrine. He let out a sigh of relief at not having to be tormented by another vision, and crossed the north landbridge, this time avoiding looking at the corpse of the second Colossus. To reaffirm exactly where he had to go, he held up his sword. The beam however, proved useless, only pointing to the path to the lake where he had fought the second Colossus.

_Well, that can't be right,_ Wander thought. Ahead of him, to the north, a vast stretch of desert loomed. It was nestled between the bridge to the east and a massive, impassible rock wall to the west. Each acted as a barrier, but for different reasons. Wander held up his sword again, this time getting Agro to turn slightly to the right. The beam shone, laser-like, at the rock wall beside the path to the lake, unlike its somewhat scattered and fragmented appearance when pointed straight at the path.

His gaze turned to the desert again, letting his arm fall to his side. Wander didn't relish the idea of riding across a desert, but it seemed there was little other choice.

Wander sighed again, this time in exasperation. "Come on, girl," he said to Agro, patting her neck. "Let's make this fast." And with that, the pair took off to the north, across the sandy dunes. By the position of the sun, Wander guessed it was sometime past noon, possibly anywhere between 2:00 and 2:30. The heat wasn't as big of an issue as Wander had thought it would be, as the wind blowing in his face kept him relatively cool. The harsh sand and the glare from the sun, however, were.

He found out he could negate the sun's harsh light simply by holding up his sword. The beam drastically cut down on glare, and the sunlight around him in general, as if the Ancient Sword hungered for the sun's rays and put them into the beam. However, the sand on the wind's breath, he could do nothing about. It blew everywhere, getting in his hair and stuck in his clothes.

Eventually, the wall started to gently curve to the northwest, the beam turning from its scattered and fragmented form to its laser-like shape when pointed in that direction. Wander smiled to himself, not only had he chosen the right path, he was getting closer. He kept going, listening to the rhythmic thudding of Agro's hooves against the sand, the dunes seeming to all blend together, until he saw another small shrine. By this time, the ground had turned from sand to dry, cracked dirt. Wander figured that expanding his mental map was never a bad idea, so he stopped to pray before it. Five seconds and one odd sensation later, half of the desert had been mapped out in his brain.

To his northwest, beyond the shrine, Wander could see a smattering of ruins atop a hill. There were tall pillars here, and stone blocks there, all seeming to increase in size as he got closer. At the top of the hill was a short staircase leading down, so short it was almost pointless. The pillars he had seen marked both ends of a short wall, that looked to have been much higher at one point in time, judging by how jagged the top was.

Wander rode towards the wall, going through an archway in the wall located near its far-left side. The archway was the entrance to a crumbling two-level bridge which overlooked a massive lake, though there didn't appear to be any obvious way to reach the lower level. On top of that, the entire western half of the bridge had collapsed at some point; the pieces of it now lay in the lake. In the middle of the formerly whole bridge was a huge pillar, a spiralling ramp wound around it. As Wander slowly rode Agro across the remains of the bridge, he looked to his left, seeing three white, glowing lights, which illuminated the silhouette of a massive serpent, laying motionless just below the water's surface. "The Colossus, I presume..." Wander muttered, dismounting to get a better look. He couldn't see much of the creature- just the faint outline of what looked like a head, and part of its body- but it was undoubtedly his opponent.

For a second, Wander considered taking a shot at the monster with his bow, but decided against it. It would be a waste of his limited arrow supply, and besides that, there was no guarantee that the arrow would even hit the Colossus underwater. Hearing Agro whinny in dismay behind him, he turned around, seeing her staring longingly at the lake. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she wanted. "Sorry girl," Wander said, walking back to her and patting her neck. "First thing in the morning, we'll go that lake where the third Colossus was, okay?" Agro snorted in agreement at the compromise, but stayed where she was.

Leaving Agro behind, he continued walking across the bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge had partially given way before reaching the pillar. Wander was forced to be separated from Agro as he jumped down onto the collapsed piece, then leaped onto the pillar's ramp from there. He made his way down the ramp (jumping over a gap in it) and got to the bottom of the pillar. Preparing himself for more cold water, and making sure his effects were on tight, Wander waded into the lake. A cloud of sand trapped in his clothes instantly dirtied the water around him, but entering the lake had another, far more terrible side effect.

Under normal circumstances, this particular Colossus was fairly passive. However, from its home in the lake, it had seen the light pillars go up, distorting the sky. It detected the ripples in the water, saw an unfamiliar shape invade its sanctuary, and began to move. The Colossus slithered through the water, its eel-like form cutting the water like a knife. It gave a roar unlike any sea creature in existence could, and even Wander, treading water, heard it.

Keeping his eyes on the creature, Wander made his way to a large chunk of rubble directly ahead of him. Presumably, it was part of the western half of the bridge, back when it was whole. Dripping wet, he pulled himself onto the bridge segment, shivering from the cold water. The Colossus followed him, starting to circle the chunk of bridge, allowing Wander to get his first real look at the monster. Through the murky water, he could just barely make out long whiskers on either side of the beast's face, like a catfish's, while the lights were actually being produced by three large spikes (similar to the masts of a ship) on the beast's back that gave off a white glow.

The beast kept swimming around and around the bridge piece for close to five minutes, Wander not wanting to get back in the water due to fear of the Colossus. However, spurred on by Dormin's voice saying in his mind,_** "Swim on the lake surface to draw out the Colossus..." **_he pushed down his fear, and waded back into the lake.

Sensing the ripples, the Colossus made right for Wander, coming closer to the surface. Wander swam out of the way as the creature got closer, its spikes giving off an audible crackling noise. The Colossus moved so close to the surface that the tips of its spikes poked out of the water, causing a shower of sparks. Wander gasped, almost taking in a mouthful of water, and his eyes widened. He immediately swam back to the safety of the bridge segment as the creature's tail, covered in waterproof fur, broke the surface and slammed back down. Needless to say, the resulting splash was enormous.

"Alright," Wander said in fear. "So this damn thing is bio-electric. That makes thing a bit more complicated." Now he_ never _wanted to leave his little sanctuary in the middle of the lake, but knew that was a ludicrous idea. Then he remembered the creature's tail had been covered in fur. Fur he could grab onto. Quickly formulating a plan in his head and praying it would work, he went back into the water.

The Colossus roared, swimming right for Wander. He moved out of the way of its spikes as they came close to the surface, the swam over top its tail as it broke the surface. Grabbing a firm hold of the fur, he took a deep breath as he went underwater.

Being pulled along by the Colossus was like holding onto an underwater freight train, there was no other way to describe it. Wander closed his eyes against the murky water, but still felt it push against him as he was tugged along with incredible force. The Colossus twisted and turned while it swam along, trying to dislodge the human clinging to its tail, and just when Wander thought he would have to let go or risk drowning, the creature's entire body surfaced.

Taking in huge gulps of air, Wander got to his feet and began to run along the creature's furry back. It was no easy task, as the beast was still moving, and sometimes, in further attempts to rid itself of Wander, it submerged sections of its body. The first time this happened, Wander was nearly knocked off the monster's back, but he saved himself by grabbing the creature's fur at the last second. Approaching the first dull-orange coloured spike, Dormin's voice called out to him again in his mind, instructing him on what to do. _**"Sever the power of the radiating horn at its root..."**_

What Dormin meant by that, as Wander got closer to the spike, was stab the familiar glowing green crack of a Minor Sigil, thereby taking out the spike's ability to produce electricity. The Sigils were placed dangerously close to the Sigils themselves, however. If the Colossus moved underwater while he was near the spikes, Wander would be electrocuted.

On the first spike, he nearly was. Wander plunged his blade into the mark just as the Colossus submerged that section of its body. Spitting out water as he and the Colossus broke the surface, he continued on.

The second spike was much easier to get to, given how it was closer. Being much more careful this time, he successfully took out the spike. Wander made his way to the third spike, located right behind the creature's head. As he made to stab the glowing Minor Sigil though, the Colossus did something rather unexpected. It quickly dunked its head underwater, activating the spike's deadly electricity in the process.

Wander screamed as the surge shot through his body. Surprisingly, the voltage was not high enough to kill him outright, but it was enough to paralyse his muscles, causing him to start to sink as the Colossus swam away, deeper into the lake.

Wander sank down for about twenty feet, the water pressure pressing down on him, before the effects of the electricity finally wore off, and he swam frantically to the surface. Just as the edges of his vision went dark, he broke the surface, taking in lungfuls of precious oxygen. Parts of his body felt completely numb, and he couldn't from twitching occasionally. Taking a look around to get his bearings, he saw he had ended up several hundred feet away from where he started. Swimming back to the pillar was now an impossibility, but that didn't matter now, as the beast was making another pass at him.

Wander dodged the Colossus's one last electric spike, and grabbed onto its tail, hanging on for dear life. The creature was even more aggressive in its underwater swimming now, corkscrewing around and around before it broke the surface. Wander shook his head to clear the dizziness, then ran along the monster's serpentine body, grabbing the fur to stay aboard when he needed to.

He quickly stabbed the third Minor Sigil when he reached it before the beast could try the same thing twice. On the beast's head was the Major Sigil. Enraged at the Colossus and determined to kill it, Wander stabbed his sword into the Sigil, a geyser of black blood spewing out of the wound, covering Wander, though his clothes were washed clean by the water. Colossi blood apparently had the same properties as oil, as it stayed floating on the water's surface and stayed there, but Wander paid this fact no mind, stabbing again.

The Colossus dunked its head underwater in a desperate but futile attempt at dislodging the man on its head, but only felt the pain of the Ancient Sword enter its head a third time. Wander wound up the final blow, and plunged his sword into the glowing glyph one last time. The Colossus thrashed around wildly in the water, Wander letting go. The creature's corpse went belly-up as it started to sink into the abyss. From his position of treading water, Wander watched the body of his latest kill sink into the murky depths... then the tentacles stabbed into him, rendering him unconscious.

Like he had several times before, he saw the white light, and heard a voice. This time, it sounded like gasping, like someone taking a deep breath after swimming underwater...


	9. Breathless

**A/N: This chapter was completely rewritten starting 4/9/15 and was finished on 4/25/15, but not posted until 5/2/15.**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

By: Rylek196

The Eighth: Wall Shadow, Kuromori

The sun had set on the Forbidden Lands once again, and with the death of another Colossus, Wander lay, unconscious, back in the Shrine of Worship. Seven shadow beings, nearly invisible in the darkness, watched over him. They disappeared as the Idol of the eel-colossus exploded.

Wander's eyes fluttered open. He groaned in pain, pushing himself to his feet. "And I thought that fighting three Colossi in a row was bad..." He moaned. Much to his dismay, his found his clothes were still soaked through from the lake. He winced from his still-stiff muscles, unclipping his effects, and peeling off his wet tabard and tunic, setting them aside to dry. Dormin, at least, was being far more courteous this time, he noticed. The being had spoke not a word, and even his light had dimmed somewhat.

He called for Agro; the horse ran into the Shrine, laying down next to her master like she had the night before. Wander closed his weary eyes, and in moments, slumber claimed him. But, his dreams were once again tortuous...

This time, his mind conjured an image of the place where he had fought the first Colossus. The ground shook as the beast stomped towards him, exactly as it had done during the actual battle. When the giant knew Wander was within striking range with its club, it stopped, raising the weapon to smash the tiny human into pulp. Wander tried to dive-roll out of the way, but found his body wouldn't respond to the commands his brain was giving it. The club descended, Wander only just have enough time to scream before it crushed him.

He felt a sudden, intense pain, and then nothing. Unfortunately for him, the nightmare was far from over. The scene changed; now he actually climbing the beast, making his way from its hunched neck to its head, where the Sigil awaited. Without warning, the monster threw its head back violently. Unable to get a grip on the creature's fur in time, Wander was flung off, landing hard on his left side. His collarbone, arm, and several ribs shattered instantly upon impact with the ground.

Despite the fact that it was dream, Wander felt everything- the sensation of falling, the pain of broken bones, and the feeling of blood pooling in his lung where fragments of ribs had punctured it. If the nightmare had ended here, he would have gladly traded sleep to be rid of the torture. However, life was not intent on being that kind.

The dream continued, showing him exactly what would have happened had he died when facing a Colossus. He felt the pain of being crushed under their enormous weight, if only for a moment. He felt what it was like to really drown, the water filling his lungs and choking him. Then, that stopped too. Suddenly, he was subjected to the most insidious pain yet. It was a burning, intense pain, coming every time he inhaled. Wander choked, trying to get air into his lungs, but that only made it worse. He coughed, blood coming out of his mouth and staining his tabard with drops of crimson. Trying to take another breath, he collapsed to the ground, grabbing his throat as he choked to death on his own blood-

The loud 'coo' of a dove next to his ear awoke Wander from his troubled slumber. He shot bolt upright, scaring the bird away. He breathed heavily, looking around. Sunlight streamed into the Shrine of Worship, and Dormin's light had returned to its usual intensity. He looked to the alter where Mono still lay. Seven doves, including the one that woke him up, were pecking the steps around the altar. Pushing himself to his feet, he gave his muscles a thorough stretch, then picked up his discarded tunic and tabard.

He held the tabard out at arm's length. The garment was beginning to show signs of wear and tear. While it hadn't exactly been _spotless_ when Wander first arrived in the Forbidden Lands, it was certainly presentable, at least. Now, though, the fabric was getting darker, stained from the black Colossi blood he was constantly getting covered in. In addition, tears were starting to form along the bottom edges, the tunic not looking much better. At the very least, they were both dry now. Wander put pieces of clothing back on, then strapped on his effects.

Right as he finished doing so, Dormin's voice boomed throughout the Shrine, giving Wander his strangest clue yet. **"Thy next foe is... A tail trapped within a pail deep within the forest... A shadow that crawls on the walls."**

The voice faded, leaving Wander to puzzle over what 'a tail in a pail' meant, exactly. Figuring he would get it once he actually saw the Colossus, Wander turned to find Agro still sleeping, oblivious to the world. _Poor thing. She must be exhausted from going through that desert yesterday, _Wander thought. _Probably still thirsty, too._

Wander gave her a scratch behind the ears, awakening the horse. "Time to get going, Agro," Wander said, smiling. "Remember? We're going to the lake today." Agro slowly got to her feet, stretching as she did so. Wander mounted her, riding around the right side of the Shrine, across the natural bridge, and to the lake.

Dismounting at the lake's shore, Wander left his steed to drink her fill while he searched for wild game to eat. Fortunately, it wasn't that hard to find something, as he had seen several black-tailed lizards along the path. He killed two of these with his sword, bringing them back to the lake shore to cook. There were a few trees growing on the lake's edge; he cut some branches off the smallest of these to use as firewood. While he was eating his meal, Wander's gaze was drawn to the massive, slanted dais on the lake. He could still faintly make out the remains of the third Colossus. The pillar of light still shone into the sky where the corpse lay. Guilt welled up in his chest, but he crushed it firmly.

Agro walked over to him, having drank her fill. Wander finished his meal, sharing some with Agro, and re-filled his waterskin. Holding up his sword, the misty air and cloudy sky that seemed to perpetually blanket the lake kept the beam from exhibiting its full strength, but the sputtering yellow beam still pointed out of the lake area.

Once away from the lake and under clearer skies, the beam directed him south. To his good fortune, he spied another fruit-bearing tree, located several hundred feet from the lake path. Climbing the tree, he shook the fruit down and ate some, Agro having the rest. Their meal done, horse and rider took off again, crossing the landbridge, back to the plains which surrounded the Shrine.

Wander rode southeast, heading towards the entrance to a canyon. Inside it, the high rock walls blotted out the sun, the beam shrinking to its weak, yellow state. Unlike when he got lost in the forest, though, this didn't prove to be too big an issue, and Wander emerged into a more well-lit area soon after. Just ahead was the entrance to a very suspicious-looking cave in the side of a mountain. He didn't need the beam to tell him that that was his destination. Riding towards it, he chanced a look to his right, and saw (though it was a tad bit out of his way), another small mind-map shrine.

Delighted, he made a detour to it, praying before it. Though the interior of the cave was not revealed to him, which was disappointing, he got a look at what lay to the south: Green, hilly plains and terrain abundant with natural beauty. The mental image alone almost caused Wander to do as his namesake, but he remembered he had a task to fulfil.

He headed back to the cave and went inside. The cave led to a massive, roughly circular cavern with no ceiling in the mountain. On the far side, a waterfall poured endless litres of water down into a pit so deep Wander could not see the bottom. The pit took up most of the cavern, leaving only a narrow ledge along the right hand side wall that could be traversed. Wander took a deep breath, enjoying the pleasant, misty air that the waterfall created.

He guided Agro carefully along the path. At about the halfway mark, was a man-made stone totem of sorts. _So I am getting close, _Wander thought. _The only question is, how close?_

He soon got his answer. Going around a bend, he entered yet another open-topped cavern. This time, it was more like a shallow lake in the centre of the mountain. Most perplexing of all, was that in the middle of said lake, seemingly defying all laws of architectural possibility, was a man-made temple. The squat, wide structure rested on a spit of land, untouched for who knew how long.

Wander dismounted Agro, making his way over to the temple, wading through the relatively shallow water. Once inside, he went down a flight of stairs, and found, like almost everything so far on the trek to this Colossus, the temple was bigger on the inside than it seemed on the outside. He used some protrusions on a pillar to reach an elevated walkway. Oddly, the pillar, and its twin on the other side of the room, had a fire burning at the top, still blazing after untold millenia.

After walking down one more flight of stairs, he heard something large hiss and roar. Walking forward, Wander found he had entered into a massive, circular, pit-like coliseum. It extended far above where he had come in, and far below, as well. Using barred windows- perhaps this place had been a prison at one point in time?- located at regular intervals along the walls, Wander was able to get a look at his newest opponent. He also found out what 'tail in a pail' meant, as well.

The Colossus this time resembled a giant lizard of some kind, like the he had eaten as food, only blown up several dozen times and mutated. From what Wander could see of it from his perch, it had a wide, fan-shaped tail, and an armoured, glowing back. The beast, luckily, could not see him from where he was, so he examined the environment, because for once, it seemed, he could.

It looked like he was three-quarters of the way up in the coliseum, though there were no barred windows above where he was. Going up was obviously not an option. _So I'll just have to go down, _Wander thought. Even his thoughts were reduced to a whisper.

He sheathed his sword and took out his bow, just in case. Behind him were staircases that could be used to travel between the coliseum's floors, so he descended down a floor. This one was much more damaged; whole sections of the walls were gone, like bombs had gone off. Looking through another barred window, Wander could see just how big the lizard creature was compared to him. This Colossus, while the smallest he had seen so far, was still easily fifteen times his size, if not bigger. Glowing spots adorned the creature's legs, similar to the bottom of the Colossus's hooves. _Good to know,_ Wander thought, then ducked back into cover as the Colossus turned its head in his direction.

Deciding to press his luck, Wander went down one more level. Now only one floor above the monster, his heart pounded in his chest. As Wander walked over to another hole that had been blown in the wall, his foot struck a stray rock, sending it down towards the Colossus. Immediately, the beast whipped its head towards him, spotting him.

"Oh, shit," Wander said as the creature's eyes went from blue to orange. The Colossus opened its maw, and Wander ran for his life. The monster shot a bright pinkish-orange energy bolt out of its mouth. It sailed through the air, impacting with the far wall and leaving a scorch mark. Wander thought he had dodged the worst of it, but then a light orange gas began to appear where the bolt had struck the wall. Even safely away from the gas, Wander could still feel a slight burning in his chest every time he inhaled. _Okay, so stay clear of that._

The Colossus then, to Wander's shock, stomped over to the closest wall and began to climb it. Its feet stuck to the wall (leaving scorch marks with every step), allowing the monster to cling to the wall and scale it. Wander ran to the left as the lizard charged up its breath attack. Passing by the barred windows, he saw the creature's belly was right over them. He quickly undid his quiver and shot two arrows point-blank into its gut. The Colossus hissed in pain, and fell to the floor of the pit, landing on its back.

Without bothering to check where the Sigils were, Wander raced down the steps to the bottom of the coliseum, put away his bow and closed his quiver, and took out his blade. The creature's two Sigils lit up like torches immediately. One was between the monster's back legs, the other between its front.

Wander went for the rear Sigil first, plunging his sword into the glyph. A geyser of black blood shot out of the wound, coating Wander in the oily substance, but he paid it no mind, stabbing the Sigil again. The second strike caused the glowing symbol to vanish. The Colossus roared in pain, trying to roll over as Wander jumped off.

Knowing it was suicide to try and take the creature head-on, he ran back into the coliseum, a cloud of gas nipping at his heels. Sheathing his sword and taking out his bow again, he raced up the stairs, running around to the other side of the arena. Currently, the Colossus was busy blasting the staircase where he had just been, coating the wall in poison gas. Wander whistled at it to get its attention, and the beast turned around, shooting more energy blasts his way, which Wander dodged.

One advantage the clouds of poison gas gave the Colossus was that they obscured it from Wander's view. The monster apparently knew this as well, as it fired bolt after bolt as it advanced, creating a huge cloud of gas and forcing Wander to move more and more to the right. He held his breath to avoid any chance of breathing in the toxic fumes, and waited, notching an arrow. He heard the creature's pounding footsteps as it scaled the walls, but could not see anything due to the massive gas cloud.

Suddenly, the creature's head popped out of the cloud, having climbed halfway inside the coliseum's corridors through one of the massive holes. Wander instantly turned and sprinted away as the beast fired an energy bolt at him. It missed, and sailed right past him, but that was what the Colossus intended. The gas started to form as Wander ran by where the energy bolt had impacted.

Though he was fortunate enough to miss most of the gas, he still accidentally inhaled some. His nasal passages, lungs, and throat were instantly aflame with pain. The Colossus hissed in triumph and retreated as Wander started to cough and hack uncontrollably. There were no words to describe the agony; it felt like almost like someone had jammed a serrated knife down his throat and was twisting it in circles. On that note, Wander coughed up blood, the crimson droplets speckling the floor.

He put a hand to the wall to support himself as he got to his feet, still coughing his lungs up. As excruciating as every breath he now took was, he would have to endure it. The Colossus _had _to be killed. Still coughing up blood, he climbed the stairs to get to a higher level in the arena. The Colossus, noticing its foe was not dead yet by whatever miracle, roared in anger,and began to climb towards Wander.

When it got close, Wander shot two glowing points on its legs, causing the creature to fall down to the floor, stunned. On the verge of feeling like he was going to pass out, Wander ran down the steps to the bottom, onto the Colossus, and stabbed its last Sigil twice more. The lizard hissed, squirmed, and fell limp for the last time. Wander almost welcomed the tentacles as the pierced him.


	10. The gathering storm

**A/N: Note to all who have not played the game: The following is an added scene I came up with and does not appear in it. What _does _play is a simple cutscene in which Wander walks up to Mono and strokes her face. In other words, nothing too exciting. Besides, he got hit with poison gas last time, so he's not gonna be able to do that, now is he? Also, since this chapter exists, you may have figured out that I beat Basaran. Thanks goes out to Yami no Nokutan for wishing me luck, and it seems to have paid off. I hope you enjoy the battle, because I (surprisingly) did too! Oh, yeah, the alternate title for this chapter is The Desolation of Smog.**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts **

**_By: _Rylek196**

The Ninth: Storm Echo, Basaran

"Lord Emon!" "Lord Emon!" A soldier ran down the halls of the main temple of worship in Wander's village to where Lord Emon was giving one of his weekly teaching sessions to aspiring priests. He burst into the grandly decorated room, throwing the doors aside.

"Lord Emon!"

Emon immediately stopped with his recital of sacred texts and looked up in anger, flipping up the white, wooden, owl-like mask he wore. "What is the meaning of this?! How dare you interrupt our sermon?!"

"F-forgive the intrusion, My Lordship," the guard stammered, "But I have important news!"

Emon closed the book he held and stood. He was an old man, not particularly intimidating in height or build, but his position in the village demanded respect.

"Well?" He questioned impatiently, "What is it?"

"It is something I don't want the students hearing, My Lord." The soldier said. "If we could step outside...".

Emon sighed and rubbed his temples. Forcing himself to act calm, he addressed his students. "Keep studying, my pupils, this should not take too long."

He followed the guard out of the room while the young students began chattering amongst themselves excitedly, trying to discern what was going on.

The guard closed the doors, and Emon immediately dropped his calm facade, almost shouting, "What is it!? What matter was so important that you had to interrupt my teachings!?"

"Please, I beg your forgiveness, My Lord." The solider said. He then lowered his voice to conspiratorial whisper._ "It concerns the Ancient Sword."_

A bad feeling settled in the pit of Emon's stomach. "A-and?" He said in a rare stammer, "What of it?"

"It has gone missing!" The soldier replied.

Emon suddenly felt very, very ill. If the Ancient Sword had gone missing, and someone were to use it for... no, it was too horrible to comprehend. Snapping back to reality, Emon addressed the guard. "Come, to my library, quickly!"

The two of them ran through the halls, dashing into another room filled with shelves upon shelves of books. Emon approached a shelf, scanning the rows of books there with his eyes. When he didn't find what he was looking for though, his worry turned into full-on panic. _No..._

He turned to face the guard. "The Ancient Sword has not gone missing. It's been stolen." Emon said grimly. "The book containing a map to get to the Forbidden Lands is not here."

"Do you have any idea as to who could have done this, My Lord?" The guard enquired.

"Yes, I'm fairly certain of whom, but right now it doesn't matter." Emon replied. "Assemble a group of our best men. Tell no one but them of this. I want horses ready yesterday! We make for the Forbidden Lands!"

"But My Lordship... the book?"

"That book contained the _shortest _path to the Forbidden Lands, not the _only _one." Emon explained hurriedly. "There are other ways, but it will take far longer to get there. Now go!" "Yes My Lord!" And with that, the soldier dashed out of the room to carry out his task.

Emon stared out of a window, toward the south, where the Forbidden Lands lay. _I know who you are,_ he thought. _I don't know why you have done this, but you are a fool... Wander._

* * *

Meanwhile, miles away, the young man in question lay unconscious in the Shrine of Worship. Eight shadowy humanoids looked down upon him, while eight doves flew over head, fearful of the shadows. Farther back in the Shrine, the lizard-creature's Idol exploded. Wander was oblivious to all of this, not only because he was passed out, but also because a pleasant vision was playing in his mind.

He saw Mono, still lying on the alter where he had placed her, but then something miraculous happened. Her eyes fluttered open, she sat up on the alter. Wander could not believe his eyes. _She was alive!_

Overjoyed, he tried to run to her, but it felt like an invisible chain was looped around his waist, pulling him back. The pulling force suddenly and without warning gave a mighty yank, quickly dragging him back through the Shrine, and all he knew was darkness...

The shadows faded as Wander opened his eyes. Instantaneously, the pain hit him like a brick to the face. He coughed and choked, struggling to breathe. Drops of blood speckled the floor and his tabard as he coughed up the red substance. Once more, Dormin did not seem to care about Wander's state of being, beginning to speak.

"**Thy next foe is... The land where trees nary grow... It sleeps in a dry lake bed... A rude awakening." **

Wander wasn't listening, nor did he care. He staggered to his feet, coughing blood all the way. "Ag-!" He called, only to be cut off in a fit of coughing.

There was no denying it- his oesophagus was surely burned. His throat was fire, and he needed water _now. _Agro galloped into the Shrine, Wander ripping open the small saddlebag for the waterskin. He downed the liquid contents in all of five seconds, even though swallowing felt like swallowing a porcupine. Within a few seconds, though, the burning returned. Wander, even through the pain, realized he would need more water- much more.

_The lake,_ he thought, _I have to get to the lake. NO!_The voice in his head roared, so loud now that it was practically shouting. The voice continued its tirade as Wander mounted Agro. _You will NOT go to that lake! You WILL endure this pain like a warrior would, and you WILL face the Colossus! _

But Wander wasn't listening to the voice. As soon as he exited the Shrine of Worship, the voice went silent. In too much agony to care, Wander made his way to the lake. The next few minutes were the longest he had ever had to endure. Nearly unable to guide Agro on his own, he had to trust the horse's intuition to get him to the lake.

Crossing the land bridge was an excruciating waiting game. Because of his condition, it felt like the fairly short bridge went on for miles. As he entered the lake path, the dryness and pain in Wander's throat increased tenfold. Agro couldn't get there fast enough; it seemed to Wander she was going in slow-motion or even running backwards.

Finally though, Agro made it to the lake. Wander simply fell off of Agro's saddle, landing on his back, unable to dismount properly. By some miracle, neither his bow nor any of his remaining arrows broke. Rolling over, Wander began dragging himself to the lake, desperate to get to it. As he crawled, the agony in his throat only increased to an unbearable level, as did the amount of blood spilling out of his mouth from his coughing.

Finally managing to haul himself to shoreline, he forsook using his hands and instead plunged his face into the cold water. Opening his mouth underwater, he allowed as much of the liquid relief to wash over him as possible. His pain temporarily abated, Wander pulled his head out of the water, his face and bangs dripping wet. Agro came over and lay down to Wander something to lean against. Wander did just that, resting his head against her side.

"What are we going to do Agro?" He wheezed. "What are we going to do..?"

* * *

The next five days crawled by like a snail wearing a ten-ton weight as its shell. During this time, Wander could do nothing but wait and recover. He drank the lake water constantly, eating very little.

Swallowing lizard meat was extremely painful, and the effort needed just to cut off tree branches for firewood left him gasping for breath and exhausted. There was no getting around it- he now had asthma. _And this will make climbing the Colossi that much harder, _he thought miserably.

His reflection in the water also haunted him each time he went for a drink. His skin was very pale, he swore his hair was darker, and subtle arterial lines had begun to appear on his face.

And all the while, the pillar of light pierced the sky, in plain view, as if looking down upon him, mocking him.

The days slowly passed, Wander's burned throat healing with the hours going by, not that his asthma got any better. In addition, his voice became much more hoarse and scratchy.

_What did I say at the beginning of this? _He thought. _That this would be easy? How damn stupid and naive was I to say that?!_

* * *

Eventually, on the morning of the fifth day, Wander felt he had healed enough to to set out. After a tasty-yet-painful-to-swallow breakfast of lizard meat washed down with lake water, he filled his waterskin, and mounted Agro.

He exited the misty lake path, out into the shining morning sun. Weather seemed to be a non-issue in the Forbidden Lands; it hadn't rained at all during the five days Wander had stayed at the lake. Holding up his sword, he soon found where the beam wanted him to go- west. There was a problem with this though- the beam pointed at a giant, grey cloud of smog or smoke in the distance. _Great._

Wander braced himself, then spurred Agro on. Up until he entered the cloud, the ride was fairly pleasant. Sandy terrain gave way to grassy plains, and turning his head to the south, he saw a mind-map shrine. Regretfully though, Wander kept going, as this one really _was _too far out of his way, unlike the last one.

Once he entered the smoke cloud, however, the relatively good ride turned sour. Wander's still-tender throat began to burn as he inhaled the thick, smoggy air. He slowed Agro to a walk when he started coughing.

It was a good thing he did, because just ahead of the pair was a small but deep chasm. It wasn't very wide across, but Wander didn't want to chance jumping it. Holding one hand over his mouth, Wander turned Agro to the left, hoping to find a way across. He did in the form of a short natural bridge, leading to a blasted, almost volcanic-looking area. This was the 'dried lake bed' Dormin had spoke of in his clue, but in his haste to get to the lake, Wander hadn't been paying attention.

Four geysers, placed in a rough square, spewed piping hot water up from the depths of the earth thirty feet in the air. Wander let out a violent series of painful coughs. _Damn it, _he thought,_ this smog is starting to get to me._

Wasting no more time, Wander held his sword up. The beam was weak, but it got the job done, pointing to a massive cave in front of him. Several dead trees were scattered near the entrance.

Riding up to the cave's entrance, Wander pulled Agro to a stop when the ground shook. Huge stones fell from the cave's roof, throwing up a barrier of dust that blocked Wander's view. When it cleared, though, the Colossus emerged. The sight stole what little breath he still had left away.

This time, the Colossus was a massive tortoise-like abomination, with four legs recalling that of a tarantula, and a mountainous shell. Wander immediately turned Agro around, spurring her into a full-on sprint. He turned his head as the beast raised its head. Four spots under the creature's chin began glowing yellow.

Knowing what was undoubtedly coming next, Wander tugged on the reins, steering Agro to the right. Right after he did this, the monster shot five bolts of electrical energy at blinding speed where horse and rider just were. The bolts struck the ground with earth-shaking force.

The Colossus began to lumber out of its cave, felling the trees simply by walking into them. It launched another salvo of energy bolts, which Wander and Agro barely dodged.

Wander knew he had to find some way to defeat the monster, and he had to find it fast. There was no cover in the geyser field- it was completely flat. By now, the beast was fully out of its cave and advancing on the lake bed.

_Could its tail be where I grab on..? _Wander mentally questioned.

He raced to the back of the Colossus on Agro, only to find nothing on the creature's backside but a leathery, and quite furless, tail. Cursing, he rode underneath the beast just as it reared up onto its back legs.

"Whoa!" He cleared the underside of the beast just as it slammed back down, shaking and cratering the ground. The impact threw up a cloud of dust, some of which Wander breathed in. He began coughing and hacking, so much so that he nearly missed Dormin's voice in his head giving him a hint.

_**The power of the earth shall shake even a Colossus...**_

_What..? _Riding out of the now-clearing dust cloud, Wander saw what Dormin was referring to just as it activated: a geyser. Thinking back to moments ago when he had been riding underneath the beast, he remembered its underbelly was furry.

_So, I've got to lure this thing onto a geyser as it sprays, and use the water pressure to flip it? _

Luckily, the Colossus was near a geyser, but luring it on top of it was much, _much_ easier said than done. It took twenty minuets of circling, dodging energy blasts, and aggressive coaxing to get the Colossus onto a geyser hole, and all the while, Wander's breath grew shorter and shorter.

Then, in one of the most spectacular thing he had ever seen, the geyser activated, hitting the Colossus square on its underbelly. The beast was actually partially lifted off the ground, suspended on its right legs by the sheer force of the water. Something was wrong, though. The beast didn't flip; it just stayed there, hanging in between sure footing and falling.

Desperate, Wander rode over on Agro, dismounting when he got to the Colossus. He saw the problem instantly: two glowing spots on the creature's 'ankles'. Snarling, he took his bow off his back, opened his quiver and shot the weak points. This proved to be the final bit of coaxing needed to finally flip the monster onto its side. With an almighty BOOM, the Colossus crashed over onto its right side, exposing its climbable furry belly.

Wander put his bow away and mounted Agro, riding her around the beast. He jumped from the saddle, getting a grip on the waterproof fur, and started to climb.

However, with his new case of asthma, Wander found it more difficult than ever before to scale the living mountain. He did his best to push past the tightness building in his chest, but he had to stop and take breaks simply to get his breath back. Worse, the Colossus's constant shifting told him it wouldn't stay on its side forever, and he had to hurry.

He made it to the lip of the shell as the beast flipped itself over. Hauling himself onto the edge, Wander made his way to the middle of the shell. It had two side walls, and a middle path, like a canyon, it was so big.

Unfortunately, there was no fur to grab onto on the shell, so when the Colossus shook, Wander was upended, falling forwards. He waited for the beast to quit its thrashing before he moved on. He didn't bother holding up his sword- the Sigil was obviously on the creature's head.

Sure enough, the Major Sigil lit up when he got close to the head. A small patch of fur adorned the beast's head, and it was here that the Sigil was located. Wander raised his blade and stabbed the glowing mark. The Colossus roared in pain, throwing its head back, trying to buck Wander off. Wander held fast, stabbing again when the monster had settled. His shortness of breath was starting to make him feel lightheaded and dizzy, but he tried to fight that as best he could.

The Colossus grew desperate on the third stab, tossing its head side to side and back, to no avail. Wander, despite everything thrown against him- his asthma, the situation, and the thrashing- was holding on. Covered in black blood, he stabbed down, and it was over. The Colossus's eyes went blank, and its front legs gave out, bringing it crashing to the ground.

Coughing, Wander just waited for the tentacles. The black shroud covered the body, and they stabbed into him, his body going numb. Still on the head of the creature he had just slain, Wander collapsed unconscious. He saw the white light, and the faint voice was back again. "Ro... da..."

* * *

**A/N: Don't ask me what the hell Mono was trying to say there. Maybe she was trying to Fus-Ro-Da and failing, lol. Anyways, I not only had to do this battle in the game once, I had to do it TWICE, on separate files. Basaran was surprisingly cooperative on the second file, and (I kid you not) actually WALKED RIGHT ONTO A GEYSER ACCIDENTALLY! I didn't plan on this happening, (then again... I never plan any of these fights) so I had to adapt the chapter accordingly. I hope you like it regardless! Next time: Its gaze upon thee, Dirge!**


	11. Its gaze upon thee

**A/N: Well, it took a while, but here it is, the Dirge battle! As for WHY it took so long, I can only blame my recent re-addiction to Pokemon. On an unrelated note, I finally decided to check my traffic stats for the story, and I see people from GREECE are reading it!? Wow. *rubs back of neck* Getting international readers... that's actually really humbling. As small as it may be now, I want to thank my audience, and I hope you'll stick with me all the way to the end! Enjoy! :) (And before I forget, listen to A Messenger From Behind during the battle ). **

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_By:_ Rylek196

The Tenth: Sand Tiger, Dirge

No visions assaulted Wander's mind as he lay unconscious in Dormin's light in the Shrine of Worship. In the world of the waking, nine shadows looked down at him. As always, the Idol of the most recently killed Colossus exploded, the the noise rousing Wander. Coughing painfully once or twice, he pushed himself to his feet, rubbing his abused throat. He looked up at Dormin's light, the being starting to speak.

"**Thy next foe is... An isolated sand dune... Its tracks are well hidden... Shaking the earth, its gaze is upon thee..." **

Wander didn't like the almost ominous tone in Dormin's voice. Nevertheless, he had a quest to complete. Forcing down his fear, he called- or at least tried to call- for Agro, his sore, dry throat keeping him from yelling very loudly. It didn't matter, Agro heard him anyways, running up the steps into the Shrine.

Wander took his waterskin out of her saddlebag, drinking the whole thing. Due to his burned throat, water was more vital than ever. He knew he would need more before setting out.

Wander made a quick stop at the lake to refill the waterskin. While doing this, he noticed the sorry state his clothing was in in his reflection. The tears along the bottom edges of his tabard had gotten bigger, the blood of the Colossi had darkened it, and, taking off the tabard completely, he saw a large black stain on the stomach area of his tunic. "These battles sure are taking their toll," Wander sighed.

Having finished filling his waterskin, he put his tabard back on, mounted Agro, and went out into the Forbidden Lands to find the next Colossus.

Holding up his sword, he found the beam pointed the same direction it had last time- west. Unfortunately, that meant having to go through, or at least near, the smog cloud again.

_At least I won't have to fight a Colossus in that cloud this time, _Wander thought, trying to think positively. At this point, positive thoughts were some of the only things he had left. He allowed his gaze to roam around, until his eyes fell on the mind-map shrine he had ignored last time. Wander snapped his fingers. "That's it!" He said.

Spurring Agro into a run, he made straight for the shrine. Kneeling and praying before it, another part of the Forbidden Lands terrain was etched into his brain. Much to his dismay, however, he saw no way completely around the cloud; he would be going through the outer edges of it.

Getting back in the saddle, Wander led Agro down the hill the shrine was on, backtracking a bit to get around it on more level ground. He soon entered the smog cloud, and just as quickly felt his throat begin to burn. Coughing, he forced himself to keep riding, holding his breath, telling himself he would be out of it soon... and then he was.

Coughing and hacking, he pulled Agro to a stop as a precaution, then dismounted her to get the waterskin. Wander drank almost half of it without rea ally meaning to. Cursing his gluttony- as necessary as it was- he replaced the cap and put it back in the saddlebag. Agro then suddenly whinnied in excitement, tossing her head up and down, trying to point Wander in a specific direction. Following her gaze, Wander saw what she wanted him to look at.

It was a fruit-tree, standing some distance south , but not so far as to be out of their way. Wander patted his horse's neck. "Good eyes, girl."

Re-mounting her, they sped toward the the tree. In less than six minuets, they had arrived at it. Examining the thick moss growing on the bark of the tree, making it climbable, Wander sighed. He didn't want to push himself, but then, the ninth Colossus's stomach was easily three times the height of the tree.

Before climbing the tree, Wander momentarily considered shooting the fruit down with arrows, but he didn't want to waste his remaining ammunition. With no other choice, he began scaling the moss, taking a second to catch his breath once he got to the top. Shaking the branches, the five pieces of fruit that grew on the tree fell to the ground. Wander watched them as they fell, hitting the ground with _thuds_.

However, once he got to the ground and walked around to the front of the tree, he found Agro already devouring a piece! "Agro, no!" Wander cried, gathering up the rest before his horse ate it all. Agro whined in dismay. Wander looked down at the fruits in his arms, then at the seemingly distraught look on Agro's face, then then back to the fruits. Putting two and two together, he smirked. "You clever horse...".

Agro had tricked him into climbing the tree to get the fruits for her to eat. "Alright," Wander relented, "You can have some, but I need to eat too, so we'll share, okay?"

He hand-fed her another fruit, ate two for himself, then cut the last one in half. Having eaten their fill, the pair took off. Going left around the rocky hill the the tree was nestled against, Wander saw yet _another _fruit-tree. There were only two fruits growing on this one, so he let Agro have both of them.

After more travel to the west, across grassy terrain dotted with more rocky hills, Wander and Agro found themselves in a wide, C-shaped canyon of sorts. The light beam from Wander's sword pointed at the north, which was a rock wall, and therefore a dead end. A little more searching revealed a mind-map shrine, and just beyond that, the entrance to a cave leading into a rock face.

Just looking at the cave gave Wander a bad feeling, but he used the shrine all the same. He used his mental map to discern that the cave led into a linear tunnel that was the entrance to a massive cavern with a floor made of sand.

The cavern was empty, according to his map, but that did nothing to ease his nervousness. Still, he didn't have much choice but to go into the cave if he wanted to complete this gruelling journey. Trying to get a hold of his rapid heartbeat, he mounted his steed and rode into the tunnel. Bats flew over his head as he advanced further into the tunnel, emerging in the cavern.

A huge hole in the centre of the roof let sunlight in, and four natural stone pillars, possibly stalactites that had fallen ages ago, were placed around the hole. Wander made his way to the centre of the cavern, when the ground shook. The Colossus had been awakened.

The sand began shifting not thirty feet from where he was. Seconds later, a massive, serpentine form, easily two-hundred-sixty feet long, arched out of the sand before sinking back in again. The creature moved through the gritty substance like it was water, twisting around the one of the stone pillars before diving out like a dolphin. The snake-creature kept moving, smashing one of the smaller boulders dotting the ground just by brushing against it. The Colossus then turned, making straight for Wander and Agro.

"Agro," Wander said with fear lacing his tone, "Move. NOW!" When his steed did nothing- evidently, she was just as scared as he was- Wander snapped the reins and kicked her sides hard. Agro reared up on her hind legs, then took off like a shot, the beast right behind her.

Wander looked over his shoulder at the monster as it chased him and promptly screamed at the sight. The Colossus' eyes were open, glaring at him. They were huge, twice the size of waggon wheels, and they glowed a demonic, hellfire orange that pierced his very soul.

The beast popped its body below the surface, preparing to lunge at Wander. He savagely yanked the reins to the right; Agro whinnied in pain, but obeyed. The monster leaped gracefully out of the sand, opening its glowing white maw. Wander and Agro were out of the way of the attack, but if Wander ever was too late in steering Agro, they would be eaten.

When the creature landed, it turned around, beginning to chase Agro again. Even as Agro ran for all she was worth, Wander kept his gaze locked on the Colossus as it thundered after them. He turned his attention back to the front just in time to keep Agro from crashing into a wall.

The chase went on for half an hour, Wander pushing Agro as hard as he could, more focused on staying alive then defeating the Colossus. At one point, he got too wrapped up in focusing on the Colossus, he forgot to pay attention to what was in front of him. Wander turned his head to see he was headed right for a pillar. It was too late to stop, Agro crashed headlong into the rock, rearing up in pain and throwing Wander from the saddle, then ran off. Thankfully, the Colossus was forced to abort its jump attack to avoid sharing the same fate.

Wander got up, hearing Dormin's voice give him a less-than-helpful hint as he did so.

_**Thy legs cannot possibly carry thee away from its danger...**_

_Thank you so much, Dormin, I DIDN'T KNOW! _Wander shot back mentally, even though he knew Dormin likely couldn't read his thoughts. Realization struck him like a lightning bolt as soon as that thought was finished.

_Wait, Dormin! That's it! Now what was his clue at the Shrine again..? _

By now, the beast was coming around, hoping to ram Wander to kill him. Wander ran for his life, dive-rolling out of the way so the monster slammed into the pillar. Calling for Agro while the Colossus was temporarily stunned, he mounted her, the horse not seeming to have gotten any injuries in her collision with the pillar.

Agro took off, the Colossus shaking off its daze and starting the chase anew. Wander frantically tried to recall what Dormin had said in the Shrine of Worship, all the while trying to steer Agro, _and_ keep his eye on the beast, lest it jump again.

He looked back at the Colossus. Its head was partially above the sand as it moved, its hellspawn eyes again seeming to pierce his soul. In that moment, though, he remembered what Dormin had said. "Its gaze upon thee...", he said softly. The eyes were the creature's weak points. The Colossus jumped, Wander and Agro dodging by the skin of their teeth.

The beast turned around, coming back, but Wander was ready and knew what to do. It would be tricky, but he had a little experience in the skill. Horseback archery was one of the tests you had to pass to join the archery division of the village militia. Wander had passed with flying colours, only missing one of fifteen targets; the second-best in his class.

Wander sheathed his sword, turned Agro around so the Colossus was chasing them again, and pulled out his bow. He made sure Agro was running top speed, then turned to face the Colossus. He let fly an arrow, hitting the monster right in one of its damnable eyes. The monster shrieked in pain. Blind in its right eye, it swerved crazily to the left, corkscrewing until it ran headfirst into a wall.

Most of its furry back remained arched above sand, allowing Wander to ride over and jump onto it. Putting away his bow, he pulled out his sword. The Sigil appeared square in the centre of the creature's back when he got close. The beast writhed as he readied the stab, screeching when the cold steel was plunged into its spine. Wander wiped the black blood off his face after he pulled his sword from the wound. He stabbed again, the Colossus letting out another high-pitched screech, and it vanished.

Immediately jumping off the monster as it dislodged itself from the wall, Wander mounted Agro and pulled out his bow. The now enraged Colossus turned, coming at them, faster this time. Wander spurred Agro into a sprint, the tired horse doing her best to outpace the beast, but it was clear she couldn't keep going for very much longer.

When the beast raised its head, Wander fired again, and missed. Unable to grab the reins in time, Wander simply shouted, "Agro, _turn_!" To his relief, she did, but the creature's jump was too close, the resulting wave of sand buffeting Agro and nearly knocking Wander from the saddle. He managed to right himself, shaking his head.

The Colossus swerved around, determined to kill the intruders to its territory. It chased Agro, the severely fatigued horse panting for breath by now, and raised its head.

This time, Wander was successful in hitting it in the eye. Now totally blind, the monster veered right into a wall. Wander jumped off Agro onto the Colossus, climbing past where the first Sigil was, to the back of the creature's neck. A Sigil illuminated itself there as soon he unsheathed his sword. The beast could only squirm and roar helplessly as the blade was plunged into it. Wander pulled the sword out, ignoring the black blood that covered him, and drove it back in with all his might.

The beast screeched, but being blinded, there was little it could do to prevent its inevitable demise. And its demise did come, in the form of Wander stabbing it one more time. The beast's squirming came to an end, it arched form collapsing to the sand.

Wander stepped off the corpse, his heavy breathing scratching at his sensitive throat. The shroud of black covered the body of the Colossus, the tentacles stabbing into him. Wander felt his body go numb, and he dropped to his knees, unconscious before he hit the ground.

**A/N: Damn. Lemme tell ya, that was a really tough battle to write out while trying to play the game. Anyways, next time is a very small Colossus. In fact, I don't even think it has the right to be called 'colossal'. So yeah, pretty unusual battle, both in the size of the boss, and (in the case of this story), the time it takes place. That's right: the next battle is one of only two in the entire story to take place at night. Again, sorry this took so long, but no promises the next one will be out any faster. **


	12. Fire in the darkness

**A/N: Well, I have here a list of a million-and-one-things I should apologize for, (and if a certain member is reading this, they know what I'm talking about). But ya know what? I'm only going to apologize for one thing: the fact that this chapter too SO DAMN LONG to get out. Readers, I truly am sorry. Some assholes on here got me down, and I got lazy. As for the rest of the list? Yeah... *tears lists into confetti and throws confetti into the air* Special thanks go out to StrawBerryJamBB and catsrawsome for the support! Speaking of which, cats, I would've been happy if you reviewed ONE chapter; way to go, above and beyond! ;) As for the... well, I'd hesitate to call them a 'person', who flamed me: this story ain't never coming down, and fuck you. Anyway, 'Liberated Guardian' is the song for this battle, so listen to it during the fight!**

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_By:_ Rylek196

The Eleventh: Flame Guardian, Celosia

Ten shadows watched Wander, unmoving, as the young man lay in Dormin's light. The Idol of the serpentine Colossus with the piercing gaze glowed white, then crumbled. The shadows vanished as this happened.

Wander pushed himself to his feet, looking up at Dormin's light. The being began to speak in his guttural tones.

"**Thy next foe is... An alter overlooks the lake... A guardian set loose... It keeps the flames alive." **

The voice faded, and Wander was left alone.

Instead of going outside to hold his blade up to the light, he walked further back into the Shrine. He came to a stop at the alcove that formerly held the Idol of the tenth Colossus. He stared at the pile of rubble for a good five minuets, angry thoughts swirling in his brain. Though some Colossi had tried to kill him before, such as the eel, the lizard, and the monstrous tortoise, none had seemed so... predatory before.

Feeling sure the Colossus's almost hungry gaze would be a memory that would stick with him forever, he spat on the debris, snarling, "Good riddance." Wander turned his head back to the alter where Mono lay. Mono... it had been so long since he had last checked on her.

Approaching the raised platform, he scared away the nine doves hopping around on the stairs. The colour had almost completely returned to her face, Wander noticed as he reached out to stroke her face.

_Five more to go, Mono, _he thought. _Five more... and then we can leave this land together._

The clip-clop of hooves on stone told him Agro was behind him, and he turned around to pet her. "Sorry about last time, girl," he told the still-tired horse. "We'll stop at the lake after I find out where the next one is, okay?"

Agro nickered in agreement and anticipation. Unsheathing his sword and stepping outside, he held the blade up to the late afternoon sun, only to see the light scatter off it in different directions. With a bad feeling in the pit of his gut, Wander turned around, facing north, and was horrified to see the beam fragments coalesce into one singular laser.

_Oh, no... not again. Please not again. _

Feeling sick, he wordlessly mounted Agro, riding her out of the Shrine. He rode slowly to the lake, careful not to push Agro too much. After all, she deserved a break after the terrifying chase with the tenth Colossus.

Soon, the duo arrived at the lake; Wander dismounted to let Agro drink her her fill of water. He took the opportunity to refill his waterskin, waiting for his steed to be done. After she was finished, he put his waterskin back and got back in the saddle.

Exiting the lake area and back onto more sandy terrain, Wander held up his sword, confirming his worst fear: the beam was at its strongest when it was pointing directly under the northernmost point of the bridge. He checked his mental map; unfortunately, he only had the northeastern part of the desert filled in, the the entire southern part was a blank nothingness.

Wander groaned in frustration, any way he looked at it, there didn't seem to be any way to get out of going underneath the bridge again.

The desert itself was another issue, as crossing it before had taken hours, and Wander wasn't sure if Agro could make it to the lair of the next Colossus before nightfall.

_Getting stuck in the desert at night spell death for both of us,_ Wander thought, glancing down at Agro. _But if we hurry... I think we can make it. _

He spurred Agro on, across the harsh, unforgiving desert, heading north.

Wander rode for a full hour with only tall, natural rock spires to serve as landmarks, before coming upon a mind-map shrine. Immediately praying at it, most of the rest of the southern part of the desert was filled in, all the to the northern wall of the cove where he had fought the second Colossus.

While according to his map, he and Agro had halfway crossed the desert, they still had a long way to go. After another two hours of riding, Wander had almost reached the northernmost point of the bridge. The sun was low on the horizon to the west, the sunset painting the tan sand ruby-red.

Rearing Agro to a halt, he held his sword up to the dying light. The diminishing beam pointed east, and also in that direction, Wander thought he could make out a giant structure- an ancient fortress, perhaps.

Wander looked up. The bridge loomed over him, daring him to cross underneath it, so it torment his mind with another gruesome vision. Wander braced himself, kicked Agro's sides lightly to spur her on, and went underneath the bridge.

The effect was instant.

He felt his mind being pulled from reality, but when he looked around, almost nothing appeared to have changed. He was no longer riding Agro, but he was still in the exact same place. A noise like a faraway explosion sounded, the echo reaching his ears, and soon after that, a lower-pitched BOOM.

There was another explosion.

Then another. And another, each one seeming louder than the last.

The thundering BOOMS were also getting louder.

Wander tried to move to the other side of the bridge to see what was going on, as the massive leg of the bridge blocked his view, but found his feet would not move. It was like they were encased in cement, trapping him to the sand.

Wander's heart rate rose as the explosions got louder until it was deafening. Finally, an explosion sounded that blew out his eardrums, making his ears ring.

Before they could stop, the inevitable BOOM that followed the explosion-like noises came, shattering his eardrums beyond any hope of recovery. A split-second later, a cloud of sand was kicked up, one that would have blown Wander away had he not been rooted to the ground. The sand whipped around him, buffeting him and tearing every bit of exposed skin.

When the dust had settled, Wander was left bleeding and battered, but he also knew what was happening. The curved tops of the bridge's legs were disappearing, in much the same way the Colossi Idols crumbled. The explosions were the sound of the legs being violently pulled out of existence, and the booms were the sounds of the bridge proper hitting the ground.

His face pale, Wander looked up as the top of the leg he was in front of glowed white, then vanished. Deafened, he didn't hear the sound of the explosion, nor his own scream as the rest of the bridge fell on him.

Wander came out of the vision with a jolt. He pulled Agro to a stop, breathing heavily.

While this vision was nowhere near as starkly grotesque as the last one, it carried a different sort of horror, one that left him with a deep-seated dread.

Forcing what he just experienced to the back of his mind, he took in his surroundings. A massive, roughly circular, and very deep canyon lay in front of him. Though the sunlight was fading fast, he saw the remains of a small archway on the far (east) side of the canyon, so he made for that.

He dismounted Agro when he got to the archway. A zigzagging path was carved into the wall of the canyon, one Agro couldn't possibly traverse safely. Far on the other side, something gave off a dim amber glow.

Wander dropped down onto the path, leaving Agro behind. He could only hope his loyal horse would weather the desert's frigid night air.

The last vestiges of daylight faded as faded as he started down the path, forcing him to slow his descent. When finally he reached the bottom, his foot hit something wet and cold. "More water..."

Wander thought aloud. "Wonderful." Preparing himself, and praying there wouldn't be a lot of water, he waded into it and began swimming, making for the glow. In the daytime, mist settled at the bottom of the canyon, but the night had driven it away.

When he reached shore a short time later, Wander gasped, holding his chest, waiting for the tightness in it to abate. It soon did, and he continued on. The glow (which he guessed to be fire), was high up, and he could see the silhouettes of pillars. He advanced into a natural corridor, instantly plunging him into complete darkness. Finding a huge opening in the left wall, he went inside.

The glow from what he could now confirm to be fire helped him find climbable ledges on the right side of the trench he was in. Scaling these, he could now see more clearly what was in front of him.

Four braziers, each set into an alcove in each corner of the room, held shallow bowls atop them. Several long planks of oiled wood burned continuously in the bowls, never going out. Backing up, Wander got a running start, leaping over the trench he had just climbed out of.

As soon as he landed the jump, he heard something growl. A huge, bulky shape jumped down from a ledge on the ceiling. The shape slammed down on the floor, skidding to a stop and turning around. It shook its body like a tiger, pawed the ground, and charged at Wander.

Barely managing to run out of the way, Wander made straight for the closest brazier. The alcove the brazier was built in was wider than the brazier itself; there was a narrow gap on each side. Wander ran into the left gap, pressing himself against the wall. The Colossus snarled, stopping itself before it ran off the edge of it arena and into the shallow trench.

It could hear the sound of the human's terrified breathing, following it. As the beast walked into the light the fire gave off, Wander got his first good look at his opponent. The Colossus an eighteen-foot-long, very blocky sabre-toothed tiger. It was shockingly small; compared to the other Colossi, eighteen feet was nothing. Its eyes glowed orange, like all the others. Two tusks jutted out of the sides of its face, and the razor-sharp stone claws on its front paws were easily six inches long.

Said claws were currently trying to turn Wander into mincemeat. The Colossus's bulk prevented it from getting into the narrow gap, so instead it reached its leg in, clawing at Wander. Each swipe of the monster's claws came within inches of reaching him. He knew that if he made one wrong move, he was dead.

The beast backed up eventually, opting to take an even more aggressive approach. It charged the gap, hoping to reach further in with a running start. Wander pressed his back to the wall as much as he possibly could, willing himself to meld with the stone. The feral beast slammed into the gap, its tusk hitting the stone wall hard enough to cause cracks.

Its swipe this time missed Wander by _centimetres. _ Roaring in triumph, it backed up to do it again, knowing it could reach Wander this time.

His heart pounding, Wander looked around for any way to escape. Obviously not being able to go forward, he cast his gaze to the sides, looking for anything to climb or grab. He saw his salvation as he looked up at the brazier. About halfway up, just out of arm's reach, was a small ledge he could use to get to the top.

He jumped, grabbed the ledge, and scrambled atop the brazier. The Colossus slammed into the gap, shaking the brazier. Its claws slashed the space he been occupying moments before. The beast snorted and roared in rage as it realized it had been unsuccessful. Looking around for its prey, it it noticed Wander atop the brazier, coughing.

Wander made an expression of pain as his lungs once again tried to extract themselves from his body by way of his coughing. To any normal person, the smoke from the fire would be unpleasant to breathe in, but to him, with his sensitive throat, it was agony.

The enraged Colossus charged the brazier, shaking it and knocking Wander's feet out from under him, making him fall harshly on his backside. The impact also had another side-effect: it caused a piece of wood to fall out of the bowl, sending it clattering to the ground, one end still flaming weakly. Dormin chose that moment to chime in and give Wander a hint.

_**It fears the flames...**_

Wander heard loud and clear, and, seeing the beast fearfully backing away from the flaming stick (which had landed near it) gave further credit to what Dormin said.

Gathering as much air as he could in his lungs, Wander whistled at the monster, egging it on. The beast rammed into the brazier, hard enough to stun itself. While the creature was dazed, Wander jumped down from his perch, grabbing the stick just as the flaming end went out.

Climbing the brazier again, he thrust the wood into the fire, setting it alight once more. He jumped down again, holding the torch up to the Colossus. Incredibly, it actually backed away scared!

Wander advanced, keeping the torch out in front of him, careful not to get too close to the beast. It was almost comical, the way the once-fearsome creature backed away from the flames.

It kept walking backwards, Wander forwards, towards the pillars in the back of the room.

Once or twice, the beast made frightened slapping motions toward Wander, but did nothing else. It kept walking backwards, then one of its hind legs stepped on empty air. Off-balance, the rest of it soon followed, the creature plunging thirty feet down before slamming into a ledge, breaking the armour on its back. It slid off the ledge, falling another twenty feet to the canyon floor where it lay stunned.

Wander let the wood in his hand fall to the floor. He walked to the edge of the cliff, looking down. From his vantage point, he could see the Sigil glowing on the creature's exposed, furry back- a giant glowing target to stab.

_The only question now is, how do I get down there without killing myself? _He thought.

Jumping was not an option. Nor was shooting the creature to wake it up, since he didn't want to use anymore arrows unless he absolutely had to.

_Wait a minute... arrows! That's it! _

He opened his quiver and pulled out two arrows. Stabbing them into the lip of the cliff, he lowered himself over the edge. He pulled one arrow out of the ground and plunged it into the cliff wall, repeating with the other one.

He slowly began to climb down the cliff this way, stabbing the arrowheads into the dirt. The process was very strenuous, but eventually, gasping for breath, he reached the ledge. Putting the arrows back in his quiver, he pulled out his blade.

He sized up the jump onto the Colossus. A twenty foot drop was nothing to sneeze at, and he knew if he missed, he could potentially break something. If he landed it, though, the fur would cushion his fall. With that in mind, he jumped... and landed right on the beast's back.

The jolt caused the Colossus to awaken with a start. Before it could start to shake, Wander rammed his sword into the creature's back. The light from the Sigil illuminated the black blood as it spewed forth in a geyser, soaking Wander.

The Colossus roared in pain, shaking from side to side, trying to buck Wander off. However, Wander was gripping onto its fur with one hand, and holding on to the hilt of his sword ( which was still embedded in the monster's back) with the other.

Wander pulled his blade out to ready the killing stab. In desperation, the Colossus started running running, interrupting Wander's attempt. It shook without end; it was all Wander could do to keep holding on. When the beast stopped shaking to try and run, Wander took his chance. He plunged his sword into the beast's back, dealing the kill strike.

The beast staggered for a few more steps, then fell over onto its right side. Wander was already off the corpse, running as fast as he could to avoid the tentacles... but as always, it was no use. They embedded themselves into him, making him fall unconscious.

He saw the bright light, and the voice was back as well... "Ro... Wan..."

Meanwhile, back in the altar, the flames atop the braziers went out. Their guardian had been extinguished.

**A/N: Well, that fight actually wasn't that bad. I was afraid I'd get stuck coming up with the vision part, but, miracle of miracles, I came up with something. This... might actually be my favourite chapter so far; I think I did the best job here. But no, I am not going to revise the first eleven chapters AGAIN. Alright, next time (which will here sooner than this one was, I promise!) A (probably less interesting) fight against Pelagia. **


	13. Great Basilisk

**A/N: Well, another fairly long update time. Who saw that coming? Show of hands? As it turns out though, I have a legitimate excuse this time. As of this writing, I've been diagnosed with two minor muscle problems in my right arm (which also happens to be my dominant one). Needless to say, this makes writing of any kind literally painful. Other than that, there's nothing new to report, other than the fact that I've deleted/altered some author's notes from previous chapters that I've deemed to be outdated. And before you say it, I know the save shrine in Half-Moon Canyon isn't broken and blah blah blah, but I can't make it _too_ easy on Wander, now can I? ;)**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_By:_ Rylek196

The Twelfth: Great Basilisk, Pelagia

The number of shadows around Wander had grown to eleven. Visible only because of Dormin's light, which had dimmed to be courteous to Wander, they looked down at him, their white eyes containing an almost anticipatory gleam. The Idol of the eleventh Colossus glowed brightly in the darkness, then exploded. As always, the shadows disappeared as this happened.

Wander stirred, awoken by the noise. He sat up tiredly, looking around. In a worn and haggard voice, he called for Agro. After a few worrying minutes- the longest Agro had ever taken to respond to a call- walked up the steps into the Shrine. Just as tired as Wander, she made her way over to him and lay down, giving him something to rest against.

Even though Wander knew another nightmare was sure to be incoming, the need for sleep outweighed his fear. Closing his eyes, he let sleep overcome him.

For the first half hour or so, he was blessed with dreamless sleep, until images started to take shape in his mind...

This time, he was in a black void; nothing was around him, yet he could still feel solid ground beneath his feet. A little ways behind him, chasing him, were the eleven Colossi he had killed thus far. Wander immediately started running, sprinting as fast as he could.

He easily outpaced some Colossi, like the humanoid ones, but others, like the eleventh, posed a real danger of catching up with him. He called for Agro, but the horse did not appear. With the eleventh Colossus gaining, he tried to run faster, but the first Colossus raised its club, and brought it down. Wander was well out of the weapon's reach- there was no way it could hit him- but when it made impact with the ground something strange happened. A shockwave emanated from the point of impact, and it raced toward Wander, knocking him off his feet.

He shot to his feet and tried to run, only for something to slam into his back with pile-driving force. The eleventh Colossus had caught up with him. It had headbutted him in the back with enough force to break his lower spine, leaving him immobile from the waist down.

The tiger-like beast then backed off, letting the rapidly-approaching tenth Colossus finish him off.

As the tenth Colossus jumped, opening its glowing maw to swallow him whole, the scene shifted and changed. Now, he was in the Shrine of Worship. He saw Lord Emon throw something from the top of the spiralling ramp into the pool of water at the back of the Shrine's main hall.

All of a sudden, Wander felt an immensely strong pulling sensation begin to drag him back toward the pool of water. Wander attempted to move the opposite direction, but the pull was too strong. He grabbed the steps, but inevitably, his grip gave out, he tumbled into the pool, and all he knew was darkness...

Wander awoke with a gasp, his skin soaked with cold sweat. Sunlight streamed into the Shrine. Morning had once again come.

The eleven doves hopping around on the stairs to the altar where Mono lay took flight as Dormin began to speak.

"**Thy next foe is... Paradise floats upon the lake... A silent being wields thunder... A moving bridge to cross to higher ground."**

As it had done the previous eleven times, the voice faded away.

Wander gave his muscles a stretch as he stood up. Walking outside, he held his blade up to the refreshed sunlight, but not before taking note of the three pillars of light, signifying where the corpses of the first, fourth, and eighth colossi lay.

Wander narrowed his eyes. He had killed those creatures... and there were still more to murder.

The beam of light scattered as soon as he held the blade skyward. The same bad feeling welling up in him as last time, he turned around, and the beam solidified, pointing northeast.

Wander let his arm fall to the side, letting out a sigh. _Well, northeast isn't as bad as straight north,_ he thought_, but I still have to find a way to the next Colossus that doesn't involve going under the bridge. _

Agro was already awake when he walked back inside, so he mounted her and set off. He rode around the left side of the Shrine, and held his sword up again. To his infinite relief, the beam pointed to a mountain off in the distance, well to the east of the bridge.

Wander let a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. For the first time in a while, it seemed fortune was with him. He spurred Agro into a slow trot, heading for the mountain. However, he was forced to bring her to a stop when he noticed he was moving toward a cliff. Dismounting close to the edge, he scanned the area. Far down below, he could see the cove where he had faced the second Colossus.

Ahead of him was another grassy plain, which the canyon separated him from. To his left, to the west, was the gigantic bridge, and to the east, he spotted a pair of man-made pillars, marking the location of a natural land bridge. _I guess that's my way across, _Wander thought.

Re-mounting Agro, he rode a short ways east, and crossed the land bridge, emerging on the plain. He found a mind-map shrine, but unfortunately, it was crumbled and destroyed, rendering it useless. Wander groaned- apparently, he had been too quick to think luck was on his side. There were a few white- tailed lizards scampering about, and a couple of small trees to use as firewood. At least that solved the issue of his breakfast.

Wander killed the lizards, using some branches from the trees to cook them. After he was done, Wander again mounted Agro and crossed the rest of the plain, going across another land bridge marked by pillars, entering a forest. He slowed Agro to a walk as mist settled upon them.

Warily, he advanced deeper into the forest, the sound of rushing water permeating the area. An enormous boulder was positioned roughly in the centre of the forest, which Wander used as a landmark. Even with this landmark though, he simply couldn't find out where to go. The beam from his sword either was sputtering and weak and very vague in its direction, or didn't appear at all.

He explored the small forest for hours, having the same problem as he did with the last one: disorientation. Wander crossed the stream cutting through the forest (the source of the noise) and circled the boulder what felt like hundreds of times.

After riding around the boulder for the umpteenth time, he stopped near the left side. He angrily dismounted his steed, and threw his sword on the ground in frustration. "Useless hunk of steel," Wander growled at it. "If only that damn shrine was still intact..." he huffed, crossing his arms.

He thought about what to do, letting his gaze idly drift about. To the left was a smaller boulder, in front was a path out of the forest he had never seen-

Wander's head snapped to the right so fast he almost got whiplash. In the mindless state of sheer relief, he picked up his sword, mounted Agro, and made straight for the exit. He came out of the forest and into the noonday sun, onto a fairly wide cliffside path. The sound of rushing water was even louder out here, Wander noted. As he slowly guided Agro along, he was reminded of trek to the Forbidden Lands, and that unforgiving cliff path on the way.

Turning a corner, Wander found out what the source of the noise was: a large water fall, spilling endless tons of water down into a river the cliffside overlooked. A little ways beyond the waterfall, a connected pair of massive man-made archways stood. The arches were nestled in between two tall, rocky walls that the river that fed the waterfall cut through.

Wander continued on his path until he was within a stone's throw of the waterfall. A scurrying lizard to his left caught his eye, and he noticed a small man-made structure in that same direction. The stonework was identical to the front of the mind-map shrines, which made Wander realize that was what it was.

The shrine, due to its placement and size, didn't reveal as much as the others; in fact, it hardly revealed anything Wander didn't already know. All it did show was a large lake beyond the waterfall archways.

A few steps away from the small shrine was a flight of five stairs, to the right of which was a pillar with ledge-like rings carved onto it. An identical pillar had been built on the other side of the waterfall, and three stone slabs were placed on the waterfall's lip, giving a clue that the pillars may have been part of another archway at some point.

Yet again forced to leave his steed behind, Wander grabbed onto one of the rings on the pillar, shimmying his way around it, as a large rock blocked the rest of the path. Dropping off the on the other side, he continued on to the end of the path.

A thirty-foot drop into the water awaited him at the end, as well as a long swim to, and under, the archways to get to the lake proper.

Sheathing his blade, and making sure his quiver was on (and shut) tight, he jumped in, shivering from the temperature. He slowly made his way to a spit of land in the middle of the lake, but it was difficult work with his condition. By the time he went under the archway, he was starting to feel pain in his chest, but he tried to ignore it and kept going.

However, the closer he got, the more the pain increased. His breathing was getting more shallow, his strokes were growing weaker, and the edges of his vision were turning black.

Finally, gasping, panting, and clutching at his burning chest, he hauled himself onto the round, small island. Three gazebo-like shrines were built in a rough semicircle around the tiny island, itself a crumbled gazebo, with the closest one being to the left. Wander barely had time to take this all in, for just north of him, the water began to churn and heave upwards.

The Colossus that emerged almost defied description. Though Wander couldn't see its lower body, it was indeed quadrupedal, and gorilla-like in its posture. It had no face per se, with no identifiable features that made up a face. Rather, its 'face' looked much like the front of a knight's helmet, and two curved tusks with glowing blue tips jutted out of the sides of its head. Moss grew in sheets all along its back, covering its back, and coral grew on its forelegs.

The eighty-nine foot tall Colossus reared higher up out of the water, lumbering towards the still-panting Wander by walking on the lake's floor.

Wander gulped as the tusks began to sizzle and crackle with electricity. He dove into the water just as the the creature shot a salvo of of electric bolts at the platform he was just on, leaving scorch marks. Still gasping for breath, he slowly started to swim for the closest gazebo- the one on the left. The pain in his chest was becoming unbearable, but if he was hit with a bolt, he was dead. Behind him, he could hear the crackling noise of the Colossus charging up another wave of electric missiles, so he did the only thing he could do to avoid them: he dove underwater.

The Colossus launched three bolts from its tusks, only to 'see' them dissipate when they hit the lake's surface. Wander could feel slight stings, but was otherwise unharmed. He surfaced for air, coughing and spitting out water.

He dodged one more electric bolt attack before making it to the gazebo structure, his chest ablaze with pain. Hauling himself up onto it, he took cover behind a support pillar, waiting for the pain to abate. The Colossus, seeking the intruder to it's territory, came closer to the structure, firing an experimental salvo of bolts to flush Wander out. All the bolts ended up hitting the pillar, leaving pockmarks and burns.

It took nearly seven minutes, but eventually, Wander's breathing returned to normal, and the pain mostly went away, save for a small ache. He cautiously poked his head out from behind the pillar, seeing that the Colossus' 'face' looked surprisingly climbable. Quickly pulling his head back to avoid yet more energy blasts, he decided to at least try to climb the beast's 'face'.

A small ledge was in front of the pillar, and he used this to get a running start, grabbing onto a ledge on the creature's face where its mouth would have been if it had one. The beast threw its head back, trying to buck Wander off, but he held firm.

When the Colossus had settled somewhat, he pulled himself up onto the ledge, using two smaller ones to get atop the monster's head. He unsheathed his blade, expecting to illuminate a Sigil on the head so he could go to work stabbing it, but nothing happened. _Okay, _Wander thought,_ now what?_

The Colossus shook its head from side to side, causing Wander to lose his balance and tumble to the left. By chance, his sword smacked against one of the strange protrusions on the creature's head, and Wander swore he felt the monster shift its body to the left. Getting unsteadily to his feet, he slashed at the protrusion with his blade. It lit up as he did so, and this time, he was sure it wasn't just a fluke.

Knowing he had his eureka moment- even if was by pure chance- he slashed at the protrusions (they looked almost like teeth, now that he thought about it) on the front of the beast's head, trying to steer it toward the flat roof of the gazebo so he could jump on it.

It took a bit of manoeuvring, but soon he was close enough the roof to jump to it. He took cover behind a small pillar in the centre of the roof that was just barely taller than he was. The Colossus launched another round of bolts, which of course hit the pillar. Enraged, the beast reared up out of the water, planting its long forelegs on the gazebo's roof. Wander took his chance then, moving out from behind the pillar to hold his sword up to the sun.

The beam revealed a single Sigil on a patch of fur on the monster's belly. He ran for it, jumping and latching directly onto the fur.

Knowing the creature wouldn't let hi stay like this for very long, he pulled his arm back, and stabbed with all his might. Pulling the blade out with effort, a geyser of black blood sprayed him. He did his best to ignore it though, and and stabbed again as hard as he could. The beast snorted in pain, lowering its body back into the water. Wander was forced to let go as the Colossus splashed down.

Wander surfaced for air, only to see the Colossus ram its head into the gazebo, crumbling it to pieces.

"Damn it!" Wander swore through clenched teeth. Trying to keep an eye on the Colossus, he began the arduous task of swimming to the middle gazebo.

While the distance was much shorter, the Colossus still made his life miserable by firing its energy bolts as often as it was able, forcing him to duck underwater to dodge them. The pain in his chest had returned by the time he hauled himself onto dry land. Once again shivering from the temperature of the water, he hid behind another pillar as the monster lumbered close enough to grab onto.

He once more climbed the beast's non-face to its head, to repeat the process of hitting its tooth-protrusions. The Colossus shook violently, but soon, Wander was in a position to jump on the top of the gazebo. Landing the jump and hiding behind the pillar, he waited for the monster to rear up again.

Sure enough, it did, Wander jumping and landing on the beast's furry belly. Pulling his arm back, he plunged his blade into the glowing mark. Getting a spray of black blood in the face when he yanked the sword out, he wound up one more time, and delivered the deathblow.

The Colossus reared up, letting out one last roar as the tips of its tusks went dark. It then toppled backward, landing on its side, Wander clinging on for dear life. An enormous amount of water

was thrown into the air as the corpse hit the lake.

Wander broke the surface, gasping for air. Seeing that he was next to the rightmost gazebo, he swam for it.

The tentacles, however, had other plans. They homed in on him, stabbing him in the back and making him pass out. For the twelfth time, he saw the white light and heard the voice. This time, it was a long exhaling sound...

* * *

Meanwhile, miles away, the peace and quiet of the exit to a forest was shattered as hoof-beats thundered through.

Lord Emon and an entourage of five elite guards pulled their steeds to a stop, examining the lands before them. They had travelled long and far to get to this point, but finally, they could see the gate to the Forbidden Lands off in the distance.

Emon had his pure white horse walk a little further ahead. "Only a little more to go," Emon informed his men. If they rode hard, he told them, they could arrive by tomorrow night. They were all tired and weary, but that was of little concern to Emon.

He could only pray that if Wander had not been killed- and deep down he hoped he had been- that they would not be too late...

* * *

**A/N: That was the most boring chapter I've ever had to write for this thus far. But the plot thickens! Alright, coming up is a major highlight of a Colossus, and I want to deliver a super-extra-awesome battle for it! But that means it will take time. I want to get it as good as it can be, and you can't rush things like that. I need to let my arm heal too, keep in mind. **


	14. Trail Drifter

**A/N: Well, this chapter was a lot more epic when I sketched it out in my head months ago to what I was actually able to put down. Don't count your chickens before they hatch is the lesson here, I guess... Anyways, my arm's on the mend, and should be good by the time I get the 14th chapter out.**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_By:_ Rylek196

The Thirteenth: Phalanx, Trail Drifter

Yet another shadowy humanoid being had joined the others, bringing the total to twelve. That gleam of anticipation was still there in their eyes, more ravenous than before. The Idol of the twelfth Colossus, like so many before it, shined white in its alcove, then crumbled to the ground.

Wander blinked his eyes open; not seeing the shadows, for they had vanished. To his dismay, his clothes were still wet from the lake. His upper back muscles and biceps were sore from all the swimming he had done. Groaning, he pushed himself to his feet, some water sloshing out of his quiver and onto the floor. Dormin then began to speak.

"**Thy next foe is... The vast desert lands... A giant trail drifts through the sky..." **

Nothing was strange about that, however, Dormin's next sentence intrigued Wander. **"Thou art not alone..." **

Before Wander could ask what Dormin meant by that, his voice faded, and any attempts to make him speak again resulted in failure. Sighing, Wander unclasped his water-filled quiver from his back and dumped it out, arrows and liquid alike emptying onto the stone floor. He put the soaked arrows back in his quiver and clipped it to his back again.

Wander walked outside, shivering as the wind hit his still-wet clothes, and held his sword up. The beam pointed southwest, toward where the sixth Colossus had been. The light pillar indicating the location of said Colossus's corpse still pierced the sky.

Wander found Agro grazing outside the Shrine, and mounted her, riding toward the the forest. The sensation of his water-soaked shorts against Agro's saddle was severely uncomfortable, and the wind rushing past him made him shiver even more.

The misty forest was no relief either, as the moisture in the air served only to make him more damp and cold. At least he knew how to exit the forest quickly, thanks to his mental map. He crossed the same land bridge that he did when he last came this way. As soon as he came out of the cave the land bridge connected to, the sandy wind attacked him. Granules of the itchy substance stuck to his clothing, and got in his hair, making him absolutely miserable. Fortunately for him, the heat wasn't as intense as could have been, given how it was nearly dusk.

Going up a nearby hill that overlooked the desert, he saw the beam from his sword pointed to a small circle of ruins not far off. To the left and right of the circle, a few dozen yards away each, were what looked like upright rings, half buried in the sand. Wander briefly wondered what purpose they served., then rode down the hill, heading for the main ruins.

As soon as he entered the circle of pillars, the ground began to shake. Agro whinnied in fear as suddenly, an unbelievably massive serpentine shape burst its way straight up out of the sand. Higher and higher it rose, twisting gracefully through the air, sand flying off its body. It circled the ring of pillars once before heading further south into the desert.

Wander was more stunned than he could ever recall being, even since he started this quest. This Colossus was well and truly the largest he had ever seen. It looked to be easily over five hundred feet in length, with four huge wings- two on each side of its body- close to its pincer-like head. Several other, smaller wings were near the centre of its body, probably to help steer its bulk through the sky. Three series of white bladders on its underbelly filled with what Wander guessed to be lighter-than-air gas kept it aloft.

Wander snapped out of his stupor when he realized the bladders were the same colour as the bottom of the second Colossus's hooves and the eighth Colossus's legs. He sheathed his sword, undid his quiver top, and took his bow off his back.

He then took off across the desert in hot pursuit of the flying sand-serpent.

Keeping speed with, and staying under, the mammoth beast was not too difficult, as it moved through the air slowly, almost lazily. Wander notched an arrow to his bow, taking careful aim at the rearmost gas bladders. While he had plenty of arrows left, he still didn't want to waste any by missing.

He pulled the bowstring back as far as it would go, squinting in the glare of the sun. Aiming for the where the bladders would be instead of where they were, he let fly the arrow. Carried by the wind, it found its mark, punching a hole in one of the bladders, all of them turning a dead black colour. He made Agro speed up a bit, following the creature as it curved around a rock spire. Notching another arrow, he successfully hit the middle bladders, then the front ones.

He then pulled Agro to a stop, expecting the beast to simply crash to the ground. Instead, the Colossus merely floated down, lowering its front wings so that their tips scraped across the sandy surface of the desert. It still remained forty feet above the ground, the scraping wingtips kicking up a sandstorm behind it and causing the earth to shake.

Wander gritted his teeth- if this thing wanted a chase, it would get one. He closed his quiver, put his bow on his back and drew his sword. Reaching forward, he patted Agro's neck. "Ready girl?" His steed snorted excitedly in response. "Then let's go, Agro!_ Come on,_ _yah!" _Wander shouted, pointing at the Colossus with his blade. Agro whinnied, rearing up on her hind legs, then took off across the desert like a shot.

The chase had begun for real, one trying desperately to catch up, the other trying desperately to escape its fate.

"Faster, Agro, faster! Come on!" Wander yelled, kicking her sides fiercely. Agro neighed in pain slightly, but complied.

Approaching the wings on the right side, Wander could see ridges on them that could serve as handholds. Trying to keep Agro's speed equal to that of the low flying sand-serpent, he saw that the lowest ridge was out of his reach. The only way to reach it was to jump, and the only way to jump forced him to do something he had never done on horseback before.

He let go of the reins for a second, tossing his sword from his right hand to his left, before snatching the reins again.

Then, ever so carefully, he placed both hands on Agro's neck and swung his legs up, gingerly starting to stand until he stood on the saddle. Praying his timing would be correct, he pushed off of Agro so hard he nearly upended the horse. Time seemed to slow in those few milliseconds he remained suspended in the air between the horse and the Colossus, then it all sped back up again as he slammed into the ridges painfully.

He lashed out his arms as he fell, his hands finding purchase on the lowest ridge. He pressed his body as close as he could to the wing to keep from being blown away by the wind as the Colossus gained altitude.

Once it reached a height it deemed satisfactory, it spread its wings out wide again. Wander stood up, running across the wing and jumping onto the creature's furry back. A strange dorsal fin-like flap of skin was right in front of him. Holding his sword up to the dusky sun, the beam pointed right at it.

With the sandy wind howling in his ears and pushing against him, he made his way around the fin, finding a Sigil. The fin shielding him from the wind, he stabbed the Sigil once, twice, as hard as he could. The creature shuddered in pain, twisting to left and right, finally preforming an aileron roll. Wander hung onto the creature's fur through all of it, but for a brief instant, he was left dangling over empty air, hundreds of feet below the ground.

He continued moving along the creature's leviathanesque body once it was over, finding another Sigil behind a much larger fin located in the centre of the creature's body. He again stabbed the glyph twice, getting covered in black blood. As he pulled the sword from the beast's back, he heard a fleshy creaking noise and realized the fin was lowering, about to cover him. Wander rolled to the side to avoid being smothered to death. He shot to his feet, running along the creature's back again. Looking back at the head of the beast, he saw it dip sharply downwards. "Oh, no..."

The creature's head rammed into the sand, diving down under it, shaking the rest of its body. Wander jumped off the Colossus's body a full twenty feet above the ground. He landed hard, but the sand cushioned him somewhat. Rolling several times across the sand, he came to a stop right in front of Agro. "Ugh..." He shook his head, sand falling out of his hair, and pushed himself painfully to his feet. His bow was still intact, sturdy as it was, and none of his arrows had broken, either.

After taking a moment to recuperate, he mounted Agro and set off. Using the sword's light beam, he found where the Colossus would erupt out of the sand. He managed to puncture the front most bladders as the beast came out of the ground. The other two were popped in short order, and the chase began anew.

Wander shut his eyes tight as he rode though the sandstorm the beast's wings kicked up, the shaking ground jostling him in the saddle. He jumped onto the left wing this time, barely able to grab hold of a ridge. Once the creature had gained altitude and straightened out is wings, he jumped onto its body, running right for the creature's tail. The wind and the ever-shifting body of the Colossus made this difficult, but he finally made it. He stabbed the final Sigil once, but as he delivered the last blow, he came to a realization: the Colossus had done literally nothing to harm him.

For the first time in a long time, even as the beast fell from the sky with him clinging on for dear life, he felt guilty. The centre of the Colossus' body hit the sand with an immense CRASH, its head rearing up before falling to the desert floor, it wings splaying out on either side of its body.

Filthy, battered, and exhausted, Wander simply let the tentacles seep into him, falling unconscious under the setting sun.

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**A/N: -groans- ** **I SWEAR I could've done that better. I MIGHT come back and revise this chapter once this story's done. I don't know. Anyways, we're nearing the finale, folks, but unfortunately for me, next time comes the first of two big obstacles I've been afraid of since day 1: Cenobia. The environmental description alone is probably gonna kill me... Expect a long time before another update. **EDIT 2/5/15: Sadly, it turns out that no, I will not be revising this chapter.


	15. Lust for destruction

**A/N: Longest. Update. EVER. Good Lord, did this chapter give me hell and them some... In fact, without help from one of my lovely readers (catsrawesome, thank you so very much) I never would have come up with the idea for the nightmare scene. Also, little fun fact: I had originally planned on calling this chapter 'The longest road', due to what I THOUGHT was going to be a massive environmental description (how wrong I was...) but I think I like 'Lust for destruction' better. Anyways, you've all waited long enough, so on with the show. P. S. I was listening to the Route 10 theme from Pokemon Black and White while typing out the landscape description. Just thought I'd mention that.**

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**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

_By: _Rylek196

The Fourteenth: Cenobia, Destruction Luster

There were now thirteen shadows looking down upon Wander's unconscious form. Visible only due to Dormin's light, as night had fallen, their eyes gleamed brightly. They vanished as the Idol of the thirteenth Colossus (which, ironically, was the smallest of all the Idols) crumbled. The noise reached Wander's ears, rousing him. He was stiff, sore, and brusied, but he forced himself into at least a sitting position.

Agro, without even needing to be called, ran up the steps into the Shrine. She lay down next to Wander, who leaned up against her, and within minuets, they were both asleep, exhausted as they both were.

For Wander though, falling asleep also meant falling into the clutches of another nightmare...

It began with blurry, dark shapes cloaked in shadow, but a noise resounded through it all: a loud, earth-shaking, almost rhythmic booming sound, like something very big and heavy was walking. Gradually, everything became crystal clear. Sandy earth came into view, far below, while the booming continued. Even in his subconscious mind, Wander realized he was looking through the eyes of a Colossus- the first Colossus, to be exact.

Suddenly, a bright, concentrated beam of light shone past its head. With each step shaking the earth, the Colossus turned around. Not being in control of the beast, only seeing what it saw, Wander could only watch from its point of view as its gaze fell upon himself, running towards the Colossus. The ground shook as the forty-ton creature that Wander was looking through the eyes of stomped towards his doppelganger.

It was like watching the world's most absurd game of chicken; even as as the Colossus slowly raised its club, Wander's clone refused to alter his course. Then, as the club descended, the Wander clone suddenly dive-rolled to the right. The giant weapon impacted with the ground, leaving a crater. Having lost sight of the Wander clone, the Colossus pulled its club from the ground.

Suddenly it- and the Wander seeing through its eyes- felt something gripping onto the fur of its left calf. It shook its leg, hoping to dislodge the annoyance, when abruptly it was hit immense pain in its leg.

Despite only looking through the gaze of the Colossus, Wander still felt the pain.

The crippled beast keeled over, supporting itself with its hands to keep from falling flat on its face. It temporarily lost the feeling of the Wander clone as he clambered onto the lowermost platform on the creature's back, then felt the fur on its upper back being pulled as the doppelganger made his way to his head.

An excruciating, unbearable pain exploded through its body as the blade of a sword was plunged into its head.

The real Wander would have screamed had he been able to. He could feel everything the Colossus felt- his clone gripping the onto the fur, the pain of the stab, and the black blood now shooting out in a geyser. For a brief moment, the Colossus's gaze wet skyward as it threw its head back to buck the Wander clone off, and almost succeeded. The doppelganger held on through the worst of the thrashing, but stumbled and lost his balance as the head levelled out.

He grabbed onto the the edge of the creature's stone 'face' right in front of one of its left eye. Before the clone climbed back up, Wander got a look at his twin through the gaze of the Colossus.

His face was blank and expressionless, far from the terror Wander had felt when he faced the beast, and his eyes looked like that of a Colossi.

Literally unable to tear his gaze away from the disturbing sight, he could only watch as the doppelganger climbed atop the Colossus's head out of sight, and delivered the final blow.

There was a brief, intense flash of pain, and then it all went dark.

Wander awoke with a start, looking frantically around. The earliest lights of dawn were coming into the shrine, dimly illuminating it. The surge of adrenaline brought on by fear from the nightmare quickly wore off, and his battered body made itself known. He was bruised in several places, mostly on his arms and chest. His clothing was even more battered, filthy and worn than before, and a small beach's worth of sand was trapped in it. Also feeling incredibly parched, he walked around Agro to retrieve his waterskin from her saddlebag. Taking it didn't rouse the horse; evidently, she was even more tired than he was.

Wander took a long drink of the room-temperature water, swishing the liquid around in his mouth, to banish the dryness, then swallowed. He then turned his attention to his sand-filled clothing. He took off his quiver and sword belt, putting them on the ground. Then he removed his tabard, tunic, and shorts, leaving himself in just his underwear, and shook the garments out one by one. He was not surprised when large amounts of sand spilled out of them.

Putting everything back on, and strapping his effects back on again, he sat on the floor right in the centre of Dormin's light. In his mind, he replayed his slaughter of the thirteenth Colossus, as well as the nightmare, over and over again.

_Is that _really _what these things feel and see?_ He thought. He looked towards the altar, where the sun's rays had silhouetted the form of the young woman lying upon it. _Mono... is this all worth it... even for you? _

The voice in his head, which had been silent ever since he had slain the eighth Colossus, piped up. _What kind of question is that? _It chided him. _What is more important to you- the lives of sixteen monsters, most of which have done nothing but try to kill you or the life of the woman you love? _

Wander clutched at his head, trying to drive the voice away. He wasn't sure what to think anymore. He just wasn't sure. Just then Dormin began to speak, awakening Agro.

"**Thy next foe is... A guardian set loose... A closed off city beyond the channel... It lusts for destruction...**

Dormin's voice faded yet again, leaving Wander be. Reluctantly, he stepped outside, unsheathing his blade and holding it up the young sunlight. As he did this, twelve doves landed around the altar where Mono lay. After turning his body for a few seconds, Wander found which direction solidified the beam- northwest. Turning around to face the inside of the Shrine again, he saw Agro walking up to him. Wander sighed- at this point, he really didn't want to continue, but knew he had choice, given how close he was. On top of that, Dormin's final sentence on the thirteenth Colossus- "thou art not alone" made him nervous. So, he mounted Agro and set off into the Forbidden Lands for what would not be the last time.

Once outside the Shrine, he held his blade up again. The beam was at its strongest when pointed slightly east (right) of the smoke cloud where the ninth Colossus had made its home. He spurred Agro on, crossing the west landbridge, and across the western plain, hugging the cliff-side that looked down into the second Colossus's cove.

Soon, he broke off going along the cliff edge, heading northwest to the huge rock wall near the lake. He stopped when he neared the wall. Directly in front of him, the wall parted into a narrow pass, while to the right, through the wall, was the lake of the third Colossus. The Ancient Sword's light beam pointed roughly into the shadowed, corridor-like passage.

Wander spurred Agro on, holding his blade up the entire time. As soon as he rode into the pass, the beam weakened and was reduced to its sputtering, yellow state within seconds. Wander's arm fell to his side. _Well that figures, _he thought, looking at the blade. _I'll just have to keep going without the beam... and pray I don't get lost. _

With that, he spurred Agro on again, going further into the pass.

The pass stretched on and on in a linear fashion, the wind's low whistle creating a lonely, ominous atmosphere. Eventually, the pass opened into a much wider, and somewhat more sunny, area. The wind howled much louder and more angrily in here, as well. Several pillars of light, which marked the locations of the Colossi corpses could be seen too, towering in the distance above the rocky walls.

Wander held up his blade as he rode through the uneven terrain. The beam, though still yellow, wasn't sputtering, and it still pointed northwest. Soon he reached a smattering of dead trees, and when he saw a man-made staircase near them, he knew he was getting closer to the lair of the Colossus. At the bottom of the small staircase was a wide fork in the road. One path led roughly south, coming out into a plain near the ninth Colossus's territory, while the other went northwest, deeper into the mountainous terrain.

Wander lightly kicked Agro's sides, heading northwest. He continued on for several more hours, during which his stomach began to growl. He knew he had to find some food soon. Finally, the claustrophobic passage gave way to a cliff-side path overlooking a small verdant valley. The path was flanked on either side by undecorated, man-made totems carved from stone. Wander steered Agro toward the cliff's edge, peering down into the valley. Down at the bottom, he could see a map shrine, but more importantly than that, there were two trees that he recognized as ones that bore fruit upon their branches. Best of all, a winding path led down into the valley, one which Wander hurried down.

The first fruit-tree he arrived at was near the shrine (the other was a little ways off) and quite tall, he had to be careful shaking the branches to get the fruit down. Falling could mean breaking bones... or worse. He was able to shake the fruits out and climb down without incident though.

After collecting a bundle of fruits from both trees and sharing an equal amount of them with Agro, he used the shrine to fill in his mental map. Doing so was next to pointless- he doubted he would be coming back here, as his journey was almost at an end- but it still never hurt.

Disappointingly, not much of the maze-like northwestern part of the Forbidden Lands was revealed, though Wander figured some was better than none. He rode back up to the cliff path, following the route laid out by the totems. The rows of totems led him to a cave entrance. Wander shuddered, hoping he would not have to fight anything like the tenth Colossus.

Slowly, warily, he advanced through the tunnel the cave led into, and then stopped when he reached a small, misty, underground reservoir of water halfway through the tunnel. An opening in the ceiling farther in spilled sunlight onto a spit of land in the middle of the reservoir.

Thinking it the perfect place to refill his half-empty waterskin, he dismounted Agro, took the container from her saddlebag and made to fill it.

As he knelt down by the still water's edge and saw his reflection, however, he dropped the waterskin, recoiling in horror. He crawled back to the edge, to make sure he wasn't seeing things- but the reflection told no lies.

His hair, which had begun turning black after the ninth Colossus, was now completely black- a sharp contrast to its once cherry-red colour. The subtle vein-like lines on his face that he noticed during his five day recovery at the lake had spread, from his neck to the bottom of his jaw, and there was a small cut on his left cheek.

His clothing and tabard were stained from all the Colossi blood he constantly was getting covered in, not to mention from the harsh landscapes he traversed. Wander lifted up his tunic to reveal his stomach. His core was chiseled, there was no denying that, but anyone could tell he had lost a lot of weight as well.

He looked over to Agro to find she was no better off than he was. Her coat was a mess, the leather of her saddle looked worn, and she was so thin Wander could almost see her ribcage. He lifted up one of her legs to find the bottom of the hoof caked with mud and dirt.

The pair looked at their reflections in the water. "How the hell did everything go so _wrong, _Agro?" Wander said, asking the burning question. "What's happened to us?" Agro only snorted in reply.

Finally, Wander picked up the waterskin, drank from it, then filled it again and put it back in the saddlebag. Before swimming across the water, he patted Agro's neck. "Only two more after this, girl," he said, "Only two more".

With that, he waded into the water (he didn't even notice the temperature, he was so used to it by now), swimming first to the tiny island to catch his breath, then to the other side. The tunnel went on for little bit more, ending when he went through a man-made archway built into the tunnel itself, and stepped into the city Dormin had made reference to. He dropped onto a cracked ledge that hung over what looked like some kind of courtyard. Over a wall and beyond the courtyard, he could make out other structures, and to the left, he found a narrow path near the wall with small handholds he used to get safely to the ground.

The courtyard only had one entrance/exit: a narrow doorway that led down to a deep trench that seemed to have been used as a water reservoir; as there was a shallow pool of it at the end of a ramp. Wander clambered atop a broken pillar segment laying on its side to get out of the deep trench, emerging in a much shallower one. He unsheathed his blade as he walked through the stone trench.

A short distance- the direction of the trench- was an elaborate stone temple, flanked by ancient pillars, and atop the steps of the temple was a motionless stone figure.

_Wait... stone figure? _

Wander's blood ran cold as he came out of the trench, for at that moment, the figure came to life, snarled, bounded down the steps to the temple, and ran straight for him.

Wander didn't think, he only did. Just to his left was a pillar, knocked over onto its side by some unknown (though it was more than likely the Colossus had done it) force ages ago. He scrambled atop the pillar, desperate for whatever high ground he could get.

The Colossus slammed into the pillar at near top speed. The impact actually managed to dislodge Wander, knocking him off to the left, but it also stunned the beast, giving him ample time to get back on. He ran along the length of the pillar, jumping onto a small nearby bridge-like structure. The Colossus, which had since recovered from ramming headfirst into the pillar, ran around it, jumping over the trench to get to Wander's position.

While it was doing this, Wander had a brief chance to observe it without fear of being mauled. The monster looked very similar to the eleventh Colossus (including in size; it was relatively small), but while the eleventh was more a tiger, albeit a sabre-toothed one, this beast more closely resembled a male lion. The intricately carved designs around its face and neck looked like a mane, and as with the eleventh Colossus, its back was fully covered in armour.

Wander ran along the bridge's flat top, leaping for a half-destroyed wall adjacent to the bridge. His calloused hands gripped the edge, hauling himself up.

The Colossus growled and snarled, watching him as he ran atop the greenery-covered wall. As he hopped down from the wall onto another, bigger bridge, the beast jumped the deep water reserve trench, landing on the other side and continuing to follow him. The beast rammed one of the supporting columns holding up the bridge, causing Wander to stumble, but otherwise the action had no effect.

At the end of the bridge stood a pillar, identical to the fallen one a ways back. The pillar was ridged, with small gaps between each ridge that Wander could use as handholds. He jumped for it, his fingers finding purchase on the second-to-last gap. He then coiled his body like a spring, using his legs to propel himself upwards, from gap to gap. Oddly though, when he got to the top, the Colossus didn't try to attack. Rather, it simply started to circle the bottom of the pillar, like a cat toying with its prey. At first, Wander thought this was good thing, but then he realized the Colossus could keep circling the pillar forever, and he certainly couldn't stay atop it for that long. "Hey!" He yelled down to it, "I'm up here! Come and get me!"

The creature looked up at him, its gaze boring into his, then continued its circling.

Wander swore under his breath. _Okay, we'll try a more aggressive approach. _He considered using an arrow, but decided against it. His supply was limited, and he didn't want to use any more unless he absolutely had no choice. Instead, he picked up a loose stone lying near his feet, and whistled for the Colossus. When it looked up at him, he chucked the stone at it as hard as he could. The small projectile made impact with one of the beast's glassy blue eyes, and it roared in pain and anger.

Its eyes a furious, blazing orange, it slammed into the pillar, knocking it completely off its base. With a lurch, gravity took over. Thinking quickly, Wander grabbed the edge of the pillar, hanging on until it was nearly vertical. He let go a second and a half before the pillar slammed down, falling the rest of the way. He landed hard on the pillar, but without injury.

He jumped to another bridge the pillar had landed near, running along it as the enraged Colossus tailed right behind. Another broken wall segment connected to the bridge, which he pulled himself onto, then jumped down onto yet another bridge, the scaled the adjacent pillar.

The beast rammed the pillar, not hard enough to topple it, but hard enough to make it wobble precariously. The Colossus slammed into the pillar, this time breaking it off from its base. Wander simply repeated the technique he used last time to land safely.

From there, it became a game of cat and mouse; Wander scaling pillars, the Colossus knocking them over in an attempt to bring him down to its level. On the fourth pillar the Colossus knocked down, Wander realized he was actually nearing where he came in.

_What's the point of all this if I can't even see its Sigil? _He thought as he ran across a small bridge and jumped to the fifth pillar. He quickly scaled it, but couldn't shake the feeling that he was going nowhere fast.

The monster toppled the pillar, with Wander using his technique to avoid dying from the fall. He jumped from the fallen pillar to one more bridge, and from there climbed the outside of a watchtower-like building using the ledges on its exterior, until he stood on the top ledge.

To the left was one more pillar- the last one standing- and an elaborate wall of arches. Through the arches, he could see the very courtyard he entered the city from. _I've just gone in big circle!? _He thought furiously. Unfortunately, the only way forward was to get on top of the pillar, and from there... Wander sighed. _This is going to hurt. _

He jumped atop the pillar, crouched down, and shut his eyes tight. The Colossus rammed the pillar, sending it into, and through, the wall, destroying a large section of it.

A very, battered, dust covered Wander pushed himself to his feet painfully inside the courtyard. How he was still alive was a complete mystery even to him; by all rights, he should have been killed. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs, then ran for the wall with ledges to get on top of the big ledge that overlooked the courtyard.

The Colossus, determined to do anything to kill its prey, ran at one of the support pillars holding up the ledge, knocking it down. The stunned beast then had tons of debris dropped on it as the entire ledge collapsed, an unlucky Wander going with it. As the creature pulled itself from the rubble, the armour on its back cracked and spilt in two, falling off its back. Wander pushed himself to his feet for the second time in as many minuets. He looked toward the Colossus, which was still busy getting its bearings back. In addition to its back armour being destroyed, its stone face was also totalled. However, the magic Sigil on its back was revealed, glowing brightly.

Wander used the rubble from the ledge to jump onto the monster's fuzzy, black-furred back. As soon as creature felt Wander land on its back with a thump, it snapped out of its daze, beginning to run wildly around to try and dislodge the human. It whined in pain when as Wander's blade was plunged into its back. The black blood sprayed out in a geyser when Wander pulled the sword from the wound, drenching him.

He held on through the beast's thrashing and running, stabbing down again. In his mind, the nightmare played over and over, the sight of the doppelganger Wander's eyes the image that stuck out most, but he was so full of adrenaline, he didn't stop, and dealt the final blow.

It wasn't until after the creature toppled over onto its side, dead, did he realize what he had done. Not only had he killed one of the few remaining Colossi, he also destroyed a city that had stood for millennia. Overwhelmed, he let the tentacles take him, falling to his knees, then to the ground. In his unconsciousness, he saw the light, and heard the voice again...

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**A/N: And I thought writing the Pelagia chapter was bad. Anyways, Argus is next. Frankly, I've been afraid of him since day 1. Although, if you recall, alllllll the way back in chapter 1, I said his hand Sigil was eliminated "for the sake of realism." Well, I figure now's as good a time as any to finally reveal exactly what that means. To even get AT the hand Sigil, one must first, stab a Minor Sigil on the back of Argus's sword-arm. From there, to get ON the palm, you must then drop from a height that would, in real life, break bones (if you were lucky) and then try to get him to smash the ground with his fist. So, yeah, the whole 'potentially bone breaking fall thing' is why I took out the hand Sigil. Remember, this story is written from a realistic point of view, but don't worry, the other two Sigils are still bastards-and-a-half to take out. Until next time! **


	16. The Sentinel

**A/N: I am an IDIOT. I screwed up the numbers of shadows around Wander at the start of each chapter somewhere along the line. Where really doesn't matter, 'cause it's fixed now, but still, wow, that's embarrassing. Either way, I'm sorry for the absolutely _horrendous _description of Argus's arena. I've said it before in chapter 6, and I'll say it here: I _HATE_ describing the architecture in this game. Oh, by the way, I had to bend the rules a little bit with the light beam. In the game, it points right at Pelagia's territory, not straight north. If it did that here, however, Wander would be going in circles forever and ever trying to find Argus, and I couldn't have that.**

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**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

By: Rylek196

The Fifteenth: The Sentinel, Argus

Now fourteen humanoid shadows looked down upon Wander as he lay in Dormin's light. As per usual, they vanished upon the Idol of the fourteenth Colossus exploding and crumbling. Wander coughed up rock dust as he pushed himself to his feet. Dormin's guttural voice boomed throughout the Shrine, announcing Wander's next opponent. **"Thy next foe is... A giant has fallen into the valley... It acts as a sentry to a destroyed city..."**

Agro galloped into the Shrine as the voice faded. Hesitantly, Wander unsheathed his sword, walked outside, and held it up to the sun. The light scattered off the blade when he held it up, sending small trails of light every which way. _Oh no, _Wander thought. _Please, please, no. _Still holding up the sword, he turned around, and the beam coalesced, pointing straight north.

"Damn it!" He yelled, throwing the Ancient Sword on the ground, where it landed with a metallic, echoing clang. Wander sat down, crossing his legs and putting his head in his hands, thinking. _I could just go back. Accept my losses, and just leave this Godforsaken place, go back to the village, and hope they don't execute me. _The more he thought about, though, the more absurd the idea became. If he went back now, he would almost certainly be apprehended (if he was lucky), be put on an equally-certainly prejudiced trial, and beheaded. Like it or not, he had to proceed. He mounted Agro, and set off into the Forbidden Lands yet again.

He rode around the left side of the Shrine like he usually did, stopping when he was within a few dozen yards of the bridge. _I'll have to go under this at some point, _Wander thought. _But do I get it over with now, or do I wait? _Ultimatelyhe decided to wait. It would serve no purpose to scare himself now, so he turned around, so he turned around, and crossed the north landbridge, riding though the northern desert he had trekked through twice before.

He rode the hour it took to get to the small shrine, and the additional two hours to the canyon where the eleventh Colossus had made its lair. Wander reared Agro to a halt, staring up at the bridge. He held up his sword. The beam pointed toward the fortress to the east he had gotten a glimpse of the last time he came this way. Unfortunately, he had to go under the bridge to get there. Steeling himself for what he hoped would be the final vision, he crossed the threshold. As he did so, he felt his mind being pulled away from reality, and the world went black. He vaguely felt the sensation of falling off Agro's saddle, but when he landed, he felt himself hit hard brick, not soft sand.

Pushing himself to his feet, he realized he was atop the bridge, dead centre in the middle of it. The structure suddenly rumbled and quaked, and a loud explosion reached Wander's ears. Wander simply turned and ran, knowing what was happening. The legs of the bridge were disappearing, being pulled out of existence, crumbling just like the Colossi Idols.

He ran until his chest ached and his legs burned, but eventually, inevitably, the collapsing bridge caught up with him, sending him tumbling down towards inky blackness instead of the desert floor. After falling for what felt like forever, he landed hard on a rocky ledge overlooking the blackness. He pushed himself to his feet, wondering how he hadn't been killed. A towering shape then rose out of the dark, right in front of where he was standing. Wander unsheathed his blade, taking a step back in fear. Two blue lights- no, two _eyes- _he realized, suddenly flared to life, illuminating the face of a Colossus. Only, this Colossus seemed different. It looked like it was made of shadow itself, with two massive, curved horns jutting out of the sides of its head. His heart pounding, Wander could only watch as the eyes faded to an orange, then to a blindingly bright white that engulfed him. Through it all, he could hear one word in his mind, clear and loud: **Freedom.**

Wander woke with up laying down on the sand with a jolt. Without even bothering to stand up, he quickly crawled backwards until he was on the eastern side of the bridge. He stood up, panting in fear. _Why do these keep happening?_ He wondered. _What did that thing mean by 'freedom?' _

Dazed and confused, he mounted Agro, and set off for the fortress once more. The sun had reached its zenith in the sky when horse and rider made it to the giant, imposing structure. The stronghold was built into the mountains. Two watchtowers, parallel to each other, rose over the structure, while out front was a small, rocky hill. Finding a ramp around the right side of the hill, Wander and Agro entered the narrow main gate of the fortress. As he did so, Wander noticed that some of the stonework had carvings that resembled eyes. Just yards into the entrance hallway, however, a fallen pillar blocked Agro's progress. Wander knew he could squeeze by it, but Agro would have to stay behind. He dismounted his steed, patting her neck.

"Go back to the Shrine, girl," Wander told her. Agro snorted, obeying her master's bidding.

Slipping his body between a small gap between the end of the pillar and the wall, Wander continued deeper into the fortress's interior. Beyond the fallen pillar was a courtyard, and beyond that, an enormously long staircase.

Wander proceeded to make to make his way up the stairs; having to climb up a destroyed portion, then stopped to catch his breath when he got to the top. A set of seven gigantic pillars (some partially destroyed) greeted him as he reached the top of the staircase.

Stepping between the pillars, he emerged into what looked like a coliseum, unravelled so it was horizontal. Walking along the centre of the long, horizontal coliseum, Wander's footsteps echoed against the ground, melding with the wind to create a very unsettling ambiance. Unsheathing his sword and gripping the hilt tightly in nervousness, he passed under the two bridges that connected the left and right side of the coliseum, then to the end of the path, where a yawning chasm awaited.

When he reached the end, there was a rumbling, and a huge arm shot out of the mist, gripping the edge of the cliff. It was followed by another, until a massive stone face emerged over the lip of the gorge.

Wander's breath was stolen and his already pale skin turned an even more ghostly white as the Colossus pulled itself over the edge of the cliff. It was large enough to make the first Colossus almost seem small. Wander was sure he wasn't even the size of one of the beast's fingers. Its fur was a blue-grey colour. Its face was that of a fearsome ogre, its feet large hooves, and in its left hand, it carried a massive, serrated stone cleaver. Wander turned and ran for his life, as the giant's gaze found him and its eyes turned orange.

He could feel the beast's footsteps shaking the earth behind him as he ran. Chancing a look over his shoulder, he saw, to his horror, the Colossus winding up a horizontal swing with its weapon. He threw himself on the ground as the stone blade swung low to the right. With gust of air that nearly blew Wander away, the cleaver passed over his head, slamming into the ancient structures on the right. Before Wander could get up, the beast ripped its blade from the stone. Wander covered his head with his hands as the weapon whipped over him again.

He scrambled to his feet when the giant ogre was getting its bearings, as the impact of stone hitting stone had kicked up a debris cloud, hiding him from the creature's view. He continued running until he had nearly reached the pillars at the end of the coliseum, stopping to catch his breath. The beast lumbered out of the clearing dust cloud, and Wander took this chance to hold up his sword. The beam appeared, highlighting a Major Sigil on the beast's head.

"Well, that's obvious enough," Wander muttered, nearly rolling his eyes. Moving the sword to manipulate the beam, he saw it illuminate a second Sigil on the creature's right pectoral.

By now the monster had nearly reached him, but Wander knew he couldn't abandon his task. Stepping onto a platform that went along the outer edges of the corridor-like coliseum, he tried and failed to jump to a higher ledge above him. As the creature bore down on him, he saw how truly small he was compared to it. Oddly, though, the Colossus made no move to attack him when it made it to where he was.

Then it raised its leg.

"Uh, oh."

Wander immediately dive-rolled to the side to avoid getting crushed under the hundred-eighty-ton monster's foot. The impact shook the ground, and Wander to his core, but also produced one other side effect: the section of the platform he had just been on was raised on an angle like a ramp.

Dumbfounded that its adversary had not been killed, the Colossus didn't immediately retract its leg; rather, it kept it on the platform long enough for Wander to run up it and clamber onto the ledge. He ran up a small set of stairs and into an upper hallway in the coliseum's walls.

The creature stomped along, following Wander as he ran along the corridor, jumping over rubble fallen from the ceiling. Looking up and to the right, he saw several small ridges he could use to get higher up in the structure, but the problem was the corridor's aforementioned ceiling, preventing him from going any further even if he could reach the ridges.

The creature wound up another horizontal swing with its weapon, sending it careening toward the corridor. Wander flattened himself against the floor as the cleaver smashed through several of the hallway's supporting archways, bringing down a section of the wall in the process, and sending debris falling into the corridor. By some miracle, none of it hit Wander.

He shot to his feet, climbed atop the debris to reach the ridges, then clambered up onto what was left of the corridor's ceiling. At the end of the hallway's ceiling were two more flights of stairs, bringing him to the same level in the coliseum as the bridges. Guessing his ticket onto the Colossus's body was jumping off one of the bridges, Wander ran across the closest one, stopping in the middle. The giant, bulky beast took notice of him and lumbered towards him.

The Colossus then did something he was not expecting- though, in hindsight, he probably should have seen it coming. The beast started to raise its sword, and Wander sprinted to the other side of the bridge.

The massive weapon smashed into the middle of the bridge just as Wander made it to the other side. The impact utterly destroyed most of the bridge, throwing up a dust cloud and sending large chunks of stone down onto the creature. It roared, obviously in pain.

Now in a rage, it stalked between what was of the bridge, and stomped the ground, hoping to scare Wander down to its level. Even up on the bridge, the shockwaves still knocked Wander off his feet. He weighed his options as he pushed himself to his feet. Even though the only way onto the creature's body _was_ to jump onto it, it wore a stone pauldron on its right shoulder that would make doing so treacherous. Landing on it would almost certainly mean broken bones, and that spelled death.

He had to get the monster to turn its body to face him, and sighed when he realized the solution to that problem. He took his bow off his back, undid his quiver, and fired an arrow into the beast's still-glowing head Sigil. It bellowed in pain, turning its head to face him. Wander closed his quiver, put his bow on his back, and after saying a quick prayer, jumped.

Life felt like it went in slow-motion for those few seconds he fell, then it sped back up as he landed squarely on the Colossus's head with a thud and an "Oof!"

Unsheathing his sword, he quickly stabbed the weakpoint., getting covered in black blood. The beast then lowered its head, and threw it back with more force than Wander had ever experienced from a Colossus. It took him literally all his strength to hold on and not get flung off. The creature then levelled out its head, but before Wander could get another stab off, it tossed its head back again.

Then it did it again. And again.

The thrashing of the beast was unbelievable and the forces and strain put on Wander were immense. Every single time the beast threw its head back, he would tossed about like a ragdoll. More than once, his head, snapped back, giving him whiplash and making him see spots. He couldn't even conceive how he would get another stab in, let alone three or however many it took to make the Sigil vanish. _And there's still the one on its chest after this..._ Wander thought, trying to hold back bile.

Finally, the beast ceased its head-shaking and began walking. However, every step the 360,000-pound Colossus took caused Wander to flail about.

Wander's knuckles were white and his forearm muscles were on fire from how tightly he was gripping the monster's fur. He knew that if he let go for even a second he would be flung off or fall. Either one meant death.

Eventually, he managed to stab the Sigil again, but after pulling his blade out of the wound, he foolishly let go, simply to shaking his aching arm out, but the Colossus was already lowering its head in preparation to toss it back. He snatched fistfuls of fur just as the beast reared back. Pain flared in his forearms as he held on, stabbing his blade into the creature's skull when he got the chance.

At long last, the the glowing mark on the beast's head vanished. Panting heavily, which hurt his throat, he began climbing down the Colossus's furry throat to its chest. Of course the beast would have none of this, shaking its head to and fro. When the shaking subsided, he made it to the glowing mark.

Before he could even pull his arm back, the monstrous ogre reared forward, shaking its entire upper body side to side.

Wander clung on for dear life, as just with the sixth Colossus's back, there was no safety net or place he could retreat to- the differences here being that this Colossus was _far_ more determined to buck him off, and his forearms were aflame with pain. Somehow, he actually stabbed the Sigil, causing a geyser of black blood to erupt out of the creature's chest. Unfortunately, the blood also made the fur slick, and Wander struggled to hold on more than ever as the Colossus started combining walking with thrashing.

He screamed in pain as the Colossus shook its body, but managed to get another stab in. He didn't even have time to pull the blade out before the beast began shaking, leaving him clutching onto the Ancient Sword's hilt as he was tossed side to side. Regaining a grip, he pulled the blade out, but knew he couldn't hold on to slick fur much longer. He felt the beast rearing back to to shake, so in a last, desperate, adrenaline-filled burst of strength, planted his feet on the creature's chest, pulled his arm back, and stabbed with all his might.

The Colossus roared, an ocean of black blood spewing from its chest, covering Wander completely. The beast fell forward, landing on its left side, miraculously not crushing Wander underneath its bulk as the corpse hit the ground.

Wander, more tired than he could ever remember being, let the inky tendrils seep into him, welcoming the numbness they brought. The white light appeared as it always did, and the voice sounded. But this time it was more clear, saying one word, that sounded like, _"Stop."_

* * *

**A/N: Okay. Is everyone ready for the final battle? Now, I don't want a repeat of what happened with Phalanx, so this time, I'll write the chapter, and if I'm not satisfied with it the first time, I'll more than likely scrap it and try again. As eager as I to start my next fanfiction (yes, I'm cookin' up some ideas) this comes first. With all that said, look out, Malus. 'Cause I'm coming for you!**


	17. Fate

**A/N: Okay. This is it. First off, I want to apologize for how long this chapter took, but like I said, I wanted it to be perfect. For added effect, listen to Demise Of The Ritual during the fight itself. Now, without further ado, the last Colossus.**

* * *

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

By: Rylek196

The Last: Malus, Grand Gigas

Wander's unconscious form could barely be seen through the mob of fifteen shadow beings surrounding him. Far back in the Shrine, the Idol of the fifteenth Colossus began to glow. Just before the Idol exploded, the shadows raised their heads, looking at one another, and exchanged one silent word: _**Soon.**_

Then the Idol crumbled, and they vanished.

Wander groaned in pain and winced as he pushed himself to his feet. His forearm muscles and wrists were sore and ached from the previous battle. He looked up at Dormin's light nevertheless, awaiting his final set of instructions. He didn't have to wait long, as Dormin's voice sounded, booming throughout the Shrine of Worship. "**Finally, the last Colossus... The ritual is nearly over... Thy wish is nearly granted..." **

Wander sighed in half-pain, half-relief at that. At long last, in spite of everything, his gruelling quest was almost at an end. Mono would be back with him soon. Dormin's next sentence, though, was something he was not expecting. **"But someone now stands to get in thy way... Make haste, for time is short..." **

With that, Dormin's voice faded, leaving Wander alone. "Dormin, wait!" Wander called, "Who is it!? Who stands to get in my way!?" Then the answer hit him with all the force of a Colossus stepping on him. "Lord Emon..."

Somehow, someway, Lord Emon had found out about his theft of the Ancient Sword, and was more than likely on his way here now.

"Fuck... not now. Not when I'm so close..."

Wander stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled fiercely for Agro. The horse galloped into the Shrine moments later. "Come on Agro," Wander said as he mounted her, "Let's go. We need to hurry!"

Just before he galloped out of the Shrine, though, Wander stopped Agro and looked back at Mono. _I'm nearly there, Mono. _He thought determinedly. _I'll bring you back, and nothing- not the last Colossus, not Lord Emon- is going to stop me. _With that, he spurred Agro on, out of the Shrine and into the Forbidden Lands.

He held up his sword, the blade catching the light of the dusky sun, making the beam appear. It pointed south, like it had at the beginning of his journey, but it was a much more direct south, and not on a slightly western angle. Knowing the final Colossus could not be where the first had made its lair, Wander steered Agro east, heading for the canyon that led to the deep southern plains. He had glimpsed these plains, and even had a mental map of them from when he faced the accursed lizard-like eighth Colossus. He rode past its cave, only giving it a passing glance as he went by, entering the verdant, grassy plains of the Forbidden Land's deep south.

Wander held up his blade again once he was out of the canyon, the beam pointing to a mountainous rock formation farther south. The light of the sun was dying however, and the beam grew dimmer and weaker with each passing minute. Wander kicked Agro's sides, to make her go faster. "Come on, girl, hurry!" He yelled at her, "We lose the light, and it's over!"

He manoeuvred Agro around and over the hills of white rock, heading for the mountains. When he got closer, he could see four sixty-foot pillars, marking a gap in the rock walls. Getting closer still, two massive doors could be made out as well, barring the entrance of the mountains. Wander rode into a shallow, sandy pit the pillars flanked. In the centre of the pit was a large, circular dais facing the doors. Said doors were very unusual, and probably had magical qualities. Each one had a perfect semi-circle carved into it about halfway up its fifty-foot height. The semi-circles, when the doors were closed, like they were now, formed a full circle in the middle. Despite the fact that it was dusk, with the sunlight fading, a beam of pure light still shone out of the hole, right onto the centre of the dais. Wander dismounted Agro, stood in the middle of the dais, and held up his sword.

He squinted as he looked into the light coming from the door, guiding the light beam from the Ancient Sword into its centre. As soon as he did this, the light vanished, and the doors opened inwards with a groan, as if beckoning him. Wander re-mounted Agro, riding into the small area between the rock walls. Farther south, beyond a shorter rock wall, the high walls of a seemingly circular mesa with man-made elements carved into it loomed.

Wander rode Agro up a set of staircases that led to a gap on the left side of the aforementioned shorter stone wall. Just through the gap was a narrow, curving, crescent-shaped cliff edge. Many bridges leading to the mesa's walls had once stood; now though, they had fallen into the ravine far below. Only one- the central bridge- remained. The bridge was old, unstable, and held up only by a crumbling underslung support. Still, Wander thought he and Agro could make it.

"All right, Agro," he said, patting her neck to reassure her, "Let's do this together." He had her back up a bit to let her gather speed, then snapped the reins and kicked her sides.

Agro ran full speed for the bridge, but as soon as she jumped the gap onto it, it started to collapse, segment by segment, behind her running form. She managed to outpace the falling segments, but jumping to the south side of the bridge, the block she landed on cracked under her feet, giving way early. Agro made a split-second decision then and there. She bucked forwards as the block gave way, throwing Wander from her saddle and onto solid ground. Wander cried out as he was thrown forward, landing hard and rolling several times. He scrambled back to the cliff's edge, but it was too late. With a frightened whinny, Agro plunged down into the ravine, over a hundred feet below.

"_AGRO!" _Wander screamed in horror, but could do nothing but watch as his only companion throughout his quest fell to her death. Wander slammed his fist down on the ground, oblivious to the pain. Tears immediately sprang to his eyes, flooding them. Even though Agro was not _technically _his horse- after all, he had stolen her just as he had the Ancient Sword- she had proven herself to be a fearless, reliable comrade many times, and Wander swore to not let her sacrifice be in vain. "Agro..."

Wander stood up, dried his eyes of tears, and looked up towards the mesa's walls. Above, in the sky, dark storm clouds were beginning to gather. As Wander climbed both the natural moss, and man-made carvings on the mesa's wall, the last dregs of sunlight faded. Halfway up the wall, he reached a ledge leading to an interior hallway carved into the mountainside. Before going into the hallway, Wander looked to the north. Despite the fact that night had fallen, the pillars of light marking the locations of the Colossi's corpses still shone. This was something he had never really taken note of, even during his nighttime battle with the eleventh Colossus.

Seven of the pillars were visible, while the rest were hidden, obscured behind mountains. Wander sighed. _Genocide, _he thought. _That is what I've committed here. _

With guilt weighing down his heart, he advanced into the hallway. Climbing the fights of staircases inside the hallway, he heard the gathering storm had begun, the heavens pouring their icy tears onto the mesa above. Lightning and thunderclaps echoed across the land, as well. The hallway ended soon enough, opening up onto a balcony that overlooked the ledge at the entrance to the hallway. To Wander's left and right were pillars that looked climbable, thanks to the ridged protrusions carved into them. Wander carefully scaled the left pillar, keeping a tight a grip as possible on the rain-slicked stone.

Once he had climbed the pillar, Wander emerged on the northern end of the mesa, and with the rain and wind blowing in his face, looked upon his final opponent, far in the distance. And the final Colossus was a monolith in every sense of the word. Roughly from its waist up, it was humanoid, with glowing, golden bands around its left forearm, and another around its right upper bicep. All traces of humanity ended below the creature's waist, however, as its lower body was nothing more than a tower. The tower grew more narrow in circumference higher up and wider lower down, making it look like a twisted stone parody of a wedding cake. Even from his distance, hundreds of yards away, Wander could still see the tower-beast moving its arms and clenching its fists, preparing for the coming battle.

For some reason, even as Wander ran up a ramp in front of him, and even as the Colossus raised its right arm at him, he felt a strange sense of deja-vu, like he had seen the beast somewhere before. Taking cover behind a nearby pillar, it hit him. _This is the Colossus from the first nightmare I had sleeping in the Shrine... But that means... _He peeked out from behind the pillar, and the Colossus immediately shot a bolt of pure concussive energy out of its hand at the pillar.

Wander ducked into cover just before the bolt collided with the pillar, blowing a large chunk out of its front, throwing up a small debris cloud, and making his ears ring. Once his hearing returned, and he could hear himself think, Wander turned his gaze northward, seeing all fifteen pillars of light were visible from his position, and certainly visible from the Colossus's position. "Then this thing could go up, one by one." Wander thought aloud over the thunderclaps. "No wonder it wants me dead." Still, he knew he had to go on, simply because there was no other choice. For Mono... and for Agro. _But was it worth it? _His conscience nagged him.

A short distance right was a fallen pillar, presumably the twin of the one he was currently cowering behind. Four other, smaller pillars near the fallen one also marked the location of a square hole in the ground, leading to an underground tunnel. Wander weighed his options. If one of those blasts hit him, he would die, there was no question of that. _But I can't just stay here forever, either. _The fallen pillar was close- maybe twenty feet from where he stood. The problem was simply making it those twenty feet without getting killed. Wander poked his head out again, and again, the Colossus fired at him. He ducked back as the bolt slammed into the pillar, shaking it and blowing his eardrums out again. When his hearing returned, though, an idea formed in his mind.

He intentionally stuck his head out on the left side, retreating when the Colossus fired at him. He repeated this process once more, one thought going through his head: _Oh my God, I'm going to regret this if I'm wrong. _

On the second hit from a bolt, the pillar, having taken more damage than it could handle, began to topple to the right, and Wander ran with it as it fell, using it as cover from the bolts. When he safely made it behind the left pillar, Wander ran a hand through his, greasy, rain-drenched hair in relief. He then jumped into the tunnel, and continued on.

The Colossus, resolute in its determination to avenge its fallen brethren, kept firing its concussive bolts at Wander even as he ran through the tunnel. Soon, the tunnel ended in a more open area, with no ceiling. Wander sloshed through the ankle-deep water that had collected from the rain, trying to ignore the sensation of his numbing toes. To avoid the blasts from the Colossus, he stayed along the right wall.

Climbing out of the relatively open space using a stone block in the corner, Wander found himself behind a barricade; one in a series of four, providing the cover he needed to get to another tunnel entrance. The barricades had horizontal slits just above his head level, allowing him to see the Colossus.

Unfortunately, these also allowed the monster to see _him. _Wander was forced to dive-roll from barricade to barricade as the tower-beast destroyed them with its bolts. Once again, it fired fruitlessly at Wander as he ran through the ankle-deep water in the tunnel. _I'll be lucky if I don't get trench foot from this... _Wander thought miserably.

This time, the tunnel came out onto a large ledge that overlooked the coast. The Colossus, having lost sight of its quarry behind a rock wall, ceased its relentless blasting. The cold wind and rain made Wander's skin tingle, and he rubbed his hands together to get some heat from the friction. This battle was by far the most dangerous- not to mention featured the harshest conditions- of any so far. He was soaked to the bone, freezing, and the memory of Agro falling into the ravine played in his mind like a torturous looped recording- but still he pressed on. The ledge snaked around a semi-cylindrical outcropping of rock, before abruptly stopping, as half of it had broken off long ago. Luckily for Wander, there was another, smaller ledge carved above the large one, that he could use to get around the outcropping.

He sheathed the Ancient Sword, in order to get a secure a grip as possible on the slick stone. How anybody had made this, at any point in time, was anyone's guess. He jumped up, grabbed the narrow ledge, and began to shimmy his way across. The wind tore at him, and the rain pelted him, threatening to dislodge him and send him plummeting down into the ocean, but somehow, Wander made it to the other side of the outcropping. Just as he was about to jump the gap between his handhold and another, more stable ledge, the Colossus fired a concussion bolt in his direction. The blast hit a rock wall to his left, sparing him, but at the same time almost indirectly killing him. A bit of the ledge he landed on crumbled under his feet from the quaking the bolt caused upon impact, sending him falling. With his quick reflexes, he was able to grab the edge as he fell, but only just.

He pulled himself back up, breath heavy and adrenaline pumping from his near-brush with death. The ledge led to yet another tunnel (albeit this one had a more elaborate entrance) that led upwards to an open pit-like area with a trench off to the left. Climbing out, Wander again found himself behind a barricade, identical to the ones a distance back. The barricade Wander was currently behind was part of a series of three. What differentiated these from the last one, however, was that the distance between them was much greater, thus putting Wander in peril for a longer period of time. He made it behind the second barricade- barely- as the Colossus reduced the first one to rubble behind him.

The gap between the second and third barricades, though, was enormous; easily twenty-five feet across, and twenty-five feet is a lot of open ground when one has a nineteen-story Colossus shooting concussive bolts at them. Wander sprinted faster than ever before, dive-rolling and making it behind the third barricade just as the bolt struck the ground.

He dropped down into one last tunnel, this one taking him directly underneath the Colossus. Peculiarly, the tower that made up the creature's lower body was hollow two-piece shell, built around the Colossus's stationary legs and connected at its waist, like a dress. Its legs were also of note. They seemed to made out of a swirling yellow-black substance resembling molten magma. Though all Colossi had elements of architecture, this one was the most building-like of them all. The beast's 'garment' did have one other connecting point: a small, edged wall at the rear, raised slightly off the ground. It was here that Wander began his long, gruelling, but final climb.

Rain poured down, lightning and thunder crashed, and the wind blew fiercely. None of this mattered to Wander, though. The howling wind may as well have been a light breeze; the rain, lightning and thunder nonexistent. His complete and utter exhaustion, coupled with adrenaline overload, had put him into a trance-like state. He just kept climbing, ready to give out at any moment, but something inside of him simply would not let him. He kept going, climbing ledge after rain-soaked ledge, higher and higher...

Eventually, he reached the creature's midsection, where a glowing green crack awaited on its furry back when he unsheathed his sword. He slashed at it, causing the Colossus to react. It reared forward in pain, then reached its right arm around to its back to inspect the wound. The beast's hands were covered in fur, allowing Wander to jump from the beast's back to its giant palm. The creature, feeling something grabbing the fur on its right hand, swung its arm around to its front, the pain in its back forgotten.

As the creature moved its arm, Wander was left dangling from its furry palm nearly a hundred feet in the air. The tower-beast may have stopped using its concussion blasts, but death now came from another angle: falling. Even when the Colossus had brought its arm around, it wasn't done moving. Oddly though, it made no move to immediately shake Wander off; instead, it kept rotating its wrist, trying to get a look at the insect that dared to slay its kin.

Wander knew he had to get to more stable footing- or any footing, for that matter, as he was slowly losing his grip on the fur. The need to do this increased exponentially when the Colossus actually did shake its arm, flailing him around and loosening his already-weak grip on the fur. When the creature rotated its wrist so that its palm was facing right, he began climbing, desperate to get to the seemingly-more stable surface of the creature stone forearm.

He soon made it to the top of the beast's hand, then ran along its arm to its bicep where another Minor Sigil awaited. He quickly stabbed the green mark, causing the Colossus to move its left hand over its right bicep in pain. Wander propelled himself off the creature's bicep and onto its left palm. The Colossus moved its left arm in front of it as soon as it felt Wander grab its furry palm. Wander once again climbed to the top of the creature's hand, and on a whim, stabbed it. The creature gripped its wrist in pain. Wander stood up, slowly, on top of the beast's hand. From his vantage point, he could see another Minor Sigil on the creature's right shoulder, but could also see its face clearly.

The Colossus, unlike the other, more monstrous humanoid Colossi, was remarkably human in its facial features; it even had a shape resembling lips. Wander quickly refocused his attention on the Minor Sigil, taking his bow off his back and opening his soaked quiver. He took aim at the green mark through the rain, and fired. The Colossus groaned in pain and moved its arm to claw at the wound. Unprepared for the sudden movement, Wander almost fell off the beast. He managed to hang on, but in the process, accidentally dropped his bow. Wander watched with a sick feeling as the trusted weapon plunged to the ground, almost a hundred feet below, along with several arrows that spilled out of his quiver.

Forcing down bile, Wander leaped atop the creature's shoulder and made his way to where he knew the Major Sigil would be. A thick stripe of fur in the middle of the beast's head ended with the Sigil. Wander quickly thrust his sword into the beast's head once. It thrashed about and threw its head back, but being stationary, it was helpless to defend itself against Wander pulling the blade out amidst a shower of black blood and plunging it back in again. Wander was covered in blood the same shade his soul had become, but he paid it no mind, stabbing the creature again. When the Colossus thrashed about, his head snapped back, giving him a split-second view of the Forbidden Lands and the pillars of light. All fifteen pillars shone brightly, marking the locations of the corpses of the innocent giants he had killed.

Thoughts of doubt began to take hold in his mind, but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to stop his grisly deed.

_Is resurrecting Mono even worth all this? _STAB.

_Dormin... can he really be trusted? _STAB.

_Did these Colossi deserve their deaths? _STAB.

_Was this quest worth losing Agro? _

With that final thought, Wander mindlessly raised the Ancient Sword one last time, and buried it to the hilt in the final Colossus's head, time seeming to slow as the blade bit into earthy flesh. The Colossus roared in agony, thrashing around in its death throes. It leaned back, the tower that made up its lower body partially collapsing as its form went limp. Wander exhausted beyond all forms of measurement, let the tentacles take him one last time, the doubting thoughts still festering in his mind. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was the fifteen pillars of light.

* * *

**A/N: Take a moment, people. Whew, how was that? All sixteen Colossi are dead now. All that's left is the ending. What will happen? What will be my take on it? You'll have wait and find out, won't you? Although, I will be doing the ending slightly differently than the game. No, I won't change the ending, just some scenes will happen in a bit of a different order. Until next time, which will be the second last time for this story!**


	18. Shadow of the Colossi

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

By: Rylek196

The Deceiver: Dormin

* * *

By the time Wander had slain the final Colossus, Lord Emon and his men were already more than three-quarters of the way across the bridge. Reaching the massive structure that was the Shrine of Worship, they reared their horses to a stop, and dismounted them. As the door that allowed entrance slid upwards, one of the men lit a torch. Two of the five soldiers carried quick-reloading, pump-action crossbows, while the rest carried swords at their waists. The man with a torch unsheathed his blade, taking point into the Shrine, followed shortly by the rest and Emon. Emon flipped down his mask as he strode into the building.

They walked down the spiralling ramp as quickly as safety would allow. More than one soldier was unable to hide the fact that they were nervous, their heavy breathing resounding off the walls. "Stay strong, men!" Emon barked, trying to ease his bodyguards' fears. "No matter what happens, no matter what we encounter in these lands, we must have faith that the gods will protect us!"

They passed the shallow pool of water at the bottom of the ramp, entering the Shrine's main hall. Dormin's ever-present light allowed them to see a little better, but the torch wasn't extinguished, just in case. Emon looked around the Shrine briefly, seeing the empty alcoves where the Colossi Idols once stood. Suddenly, one of the soldiers cried out. "Lord Emon!"

Emon looked to the right to see the Idol of the final Colossus begin to glow, lighting up the Shrine and forcing everyone to shield their eyes from the blinding radiance. Then, with a ear-shattering _BOOM_, the Idol exploded into rubble, joining all the others in pieces.

"No..." Emon said once his ears stopped ringing. They had failed. After all the effort it had taken, they had been too late. Emon flipped up his mask, looking toward the far end of the long hallway. The moonlight streaming in, as well as Dormin's light, illuminated the altar, and the silhouette of a body laying upon it. Emon immediately raced toward the altar, his guards following him. Reaching the altar, he recognized the body of the young woman he had sacrificed several weeks ago. Emon realized in that moment what Wander had been trying to do, and knew that, under no circumstances, could Mono's soul be allowed to return to her body. Placing his hand on her forehead, he began to chant arcane spells...

Meanwhile, back at the mesa where the final Colossus's lifeless body now stood, Wander's unconscious form lay atop the beast's head. The rain that had plagued him during the battle had ceased after he dealt the final blow to the Colossus. His eyes opened the slightest bit, but he couldn't register anything but his breathing due to his intense exhaustion. Slowly, his body began to levitate into the sky, the young man feeling like he was floating through a sea of darkness...

Back in the Shrine of Worship, Emon was growing increasingly worried. He continued to chant, but knew he was making no progress. Mono's soul was returning to her body; he could already tell.

Hearing a noise behind him, he stopped, turning around.

There, laying in the centre of Dormin's light, was Wander. Seconds later, the Ancient Sword, still coated in the blood of the final Colossus, fell from the ceiling, the blade becoming lodged in the ground near the left side of Idol alcoves. Then, slowly, the battered warrior began to move. Behind Wander, several humanoid shadow beings started to rise from the floor, like living corpses emerging from a muddy swamp. Wander himself looked horrible. The arterial lines on his skin now covered his face, his eyes and flesh having turned a lifeless, pale shade of purple. Two small horns jutted out of each side of his head, and his pained groans sounded like there was more than one voice issuing from his mouth.

He may have been there in body, but Wander's mind was no longer his own. Every motion felt like something was fighting against him, and the voice in his head, which had cropped up so frequently throughout his quest, had now risen to a brain-rending shriek, chanting the same word again and again: **FREEDOM.**

"So it was you after all," Emon said in a dangerous tone, Mono now forgotten. "... I don't believe this; have you any idea what you've done?! Not only did you steal the Ancient Sword and trespass upon this cursed land, you used the forbidden spell as well!"

Emon gestured to his bodyguards, and two of them- one with a sword and the other with a crossbow-began to walk toward Wander, who had only just made it to his feet. Seemingly oblivious to all else, and driven by sheer willpower, he began to stagger towards where Mono lay, the shadow beings following him.

"To be reduced to such a sight..." Emon continued. "You were only being _used, _you blind fool."

Emon then addressed the solider with the crossbow. "Eradicate the source of the evil." Wordlessly, the man hefted his weapon, taking aim at Wander. Still seemingly oblivious, Wander continued shuffling forwards, fighting the otherworldly force controlling his body with each step. As if on cue, Emon revealed exactly what was trying to take over his body. "Look at his eyes... he's possessed by the dead."

The crossbowman hesitated to shoot, sympathy for the pitiful shell Wander had become almost staying his hand. "Hurry up and do it!" Emon barked, growing increasingly worried. The crossbowman, unable to bring himself to make the lethal shot, aimed for Wander's leg instead, the bolt striking him in the right thigh. The force of the impact knocked Wander off his feet, and he landed hard on his side. A black mark began to spread across his pant leg, spreading from where the arrow hit. Clutching his wounded leg, he looked back to see a soldier walking toward where he lay. "It is better to put him out of his misery than to exist, cursed as he is," Emon said to his men.

The soldier approaching Wander unsheathed his sword. Stopping in front of Wander, he pointed its deadly tip downwards, aiming right for Wander's heart. Wander stared up at the blade now hovering over him, giving the man holding it a desperate, pleading look. After a second's hesitation, the soldier raised the blade, and plunged it into Wander's chest, the sickening _shick _sound of steel sinking into flesh echoing throughout the Shrine.

For a moment, nothing happened. No one moved, not even the shadow beings. Then, Emon and his men looked on in shock as black, inky blood spurted from the wound in Wander's chest, around the edges of the sword. The man who had stabbed Wander recoiled in horror as the cursed young man slowly and painfully rose to his feet, the sword still grotesquely impaled through his chest, black blood spewing around the blade. His vision going blurry, Wander reached out his arm towards Mono, still laying on the altar behind Emon. _Still dead. _Even after all he had done, all he had sacrificed, his love would not be returned to him. He had trusted a being who, in the end, had betrayed him. The realization crushed what last bit of spirit he had left, leaving nothing but sheer, unending despair. With an anguished cry, Wander grabbed the sword's blade, and pulled it out of his chest, a geyser of black blood erupting from the wound as he did so. The sword clattered to the ground, Wander soon following it. A shroud of darkness covered his body, just like the Colossi.

Thinking the drama was over, Emon turned back to Mono, preparing to finish the rituals he initially started, only to turn back when he heard the frighted cries of his men. The shadow that now made up Wander's body was shifting, changing... and growing much larger. In seconds, a massive, shadowy being had formed with an almost triumphant-sounding roar. A low, guttural one.

The shadow Colossus towered nearly twelve meters tall on back-jointed legs. Its arms were as thick as tree trunks, and two massive, curved horns of shadow jutted out of either side of its head. Had it not been for the light, which still had not gone out, it would have been nearly invisible. Then it began to speak. **"Thou severed Our body into sixteen segments for an eternity in order to seal away Our power... We, Dormin have arisen anew..."**

"He's been resurrected..!" Emon exclaimed in horror. Once, long, long ago, the being known as Dormin had appeared benevolent, back in the time when people lived in what was now called the Forbidden Lands. Centuries, perhaps millenia ago, Wander's people's ancestors had discovered the the Forbidden Lands, the already constructed bridge and Shrine of Worship... and Dormin as well. Even though he had made himself known to the people in the frighting form he had taken now, the being had put up a cordial air, promising to aid the people in their colonization efforts.

That friendliness, the people would later discover, was nothing more than a facade.

For a time, things were peaceful; Dormin assisted the ancient people build grand structures that would otherwise have proved impossible without his help. After the temples and dwellings were built in record time, the people enjoyed a few decades of peace, making the occasional sacrifice of livestock or tribute to Dormin as he requested it. For a time, Dormin was content being worshipped like this, but then grew greedy. He began to demand more and more of the people, and far more frequently, on top of that.

Eventually, he demanded a human sacrifice of sixteen people. When the horrified populous rejected, Dormin flew into a rage. He cursed the land, so that all rain would pour down upon one small section of land to the far south. He then began to destroy then people's dwellings, and killed many, driving others insane with nightmares and visions.

In a bid to seal away what they now knew was a destructive demon, the people forged a sword that could destroy any magical being, object, or spell: the Ancient Sword. The sword was then used to cut Dormin's essence into sixteen pieces (a fitting fate, seeing as how Dormin wanted a sacrifice of sixteen people). Powerful shamans had then magically created the Colossi Idols to act as locks for the essence, keeping him imprisoned in the Shrine of Worship. However, as a side effect, the Colossi themselves were also made acting as living embodiments of the Idols. When Wander slayed the beasts one by one- when the Idols fell- he was, in actuality, unsealing Dormin.

Dormin slammed his massive palms down, causing small bits of stone debris to fly every which way.** "We have borrowed the body of this warrior..." **The humanoid shadow beings- now revealed as parts of Dormin's essence- ran for the creature, reuniting with their body at long last. As they were absorbed into the shadow Colossus, it grew to just over fifteen meters tall. "Place a seal around the entire Shrine before it's too late!" Emon shouted. If Dormin left the Shrine, it could potentially mean the apocalypse.

The soldiers and Emon immediately started running, trying to get out of the Shrine's main hall as fast as they could, the shadow Colossus stomping after them. "Spread out!" Emon yelled. "It will make us harder to hit!"

Everyone started to disperse, two soldiers going to grab the Ancient Sword from where it had embedded itself in the floor. Dormin noticed this, and turned toward them, ignoring the crossbow bolts being fired at it. The shadow Colossus raised it fist at the two men and slammed it down, the pair too paralysed with fear to even scream. However, when its fist made contact, the soldiers were knocked back, but not killed. The impact had made a crater in the floor, but the men had survived. Dormin roared in anger, turning to smash Lord Emon, only to get the same result.

Dormin was just as defenceless against the humans as every Colossus had been against Wander.

Having grabbed the Ancient Sword, the soldiers and Emon made a mad dash out of the Shrine's main hall. They ran up the spiralling ramp, forgoing safety- the only thing that mattered now was stopping Dormin.

Back down in the Shrine's main hall, the shadow Colossus turned around, heading for the altar. If it could make it out of the Shrine, it could avoid being sealed away. Its movement was sluggish, though, like almost all of the Colossi.

Up at the top of the ramp, the soldier who had grabbed the Ancient Sword passed it to Emon. "Ready my horse," Emon said, gasping for breath. "We need to leave as soon as I do this."

The troops nodded, heading up the stairs out of the Shrine.

Emon walked toward the edge of the ramp. Sealing away Dormin would require both something to seal him into as well as the sacrifice of the sword itself. Emon looked down at the shallow pool of water at the bottom of the ramp. _That will do it, _he thought.

He held the sword out in front of him, contemplating what he was about to do. The Ancient Sword was a sacred treasure to his people, especially his family line, as ancestors had been the ones to forge it. But Wander's actions had forever stained the blade, both literally and in name. Taking one last look at the blade, he raised it above his head, and hurled it down towards the pool of water, yelling, "Begone foul beast!" The blade entered the water with a splash, white light covering the water with a ringing sound.

A beacon of brilliant white light shot up, illuminating the interior of the ramp room with its brilliance. A powerful wind coming off the light blew Emon's hood back, and he walked up the stairs, heading out of the Shrine.

In the Shrine's main hall, a incredible suction from the the water pool began to suck most of the shadow Colossus's form away, dragging it backwards in the process. As the form of Dormin was sapped away, the body of Wander, still covered in shadow, emerged. The voice in his head was cut off midway through its scream of 'no', and he was in full control of his body again, the evil influence having been pulled into the water.

The shadow form of Wander thrashed and fought desperately against the pull from the pool, but it was like a grain of dirt fighting the suction of a vacuum: futile. He tried dive-rolling, running and jumping, but gradually, he was sucked backwards. Reaching the steps, he grabbed the top one in a last-ditch attempt to avoid his fate. He could see the silhouette of Mono, laying on the altar. Even now, she was still dead. Wander reached out a hand, as if trying to touch her from so far away. Just before his grip on the step gave out, a single tear slid down his face, one word escaping his lips:_"Mono." _

Then, his grip gave out, he tumbled into the pool, and all he knew was darkness...


	19. Epilogue: Life goes on

**In The Shadow of the Beasts**

By: Rylek196

Epilogue: Those Who Remain

* * *

Lord Emon and his men mounted their horses and rode for their lives as the bridge supports began to glow white and disappear. Luckily for them, they had a good head start, but the bridge was collapsing fast. With Dormin's final sealing, so too, would be the way to the lands he commanded. Lord Emon and his men rode for hours across the bridge, pushing their horses to the limit, but finally made it safely to the other side, one man only just making it.

Emon took a moment to watch as the final blocks of the bridge fell, landing in the Forbidden Land with echoing BOOMS. With the dust rising from where the pieces of the bridge fell, he said a few last words, almost a eulogy. "Poor ungodly soul... Now, no man will ever trespass upon this place again." "Should you be alive..." he addressed Wander, "If it's even possible to continue to exist in these sealed lands... one day, perhaps you will make atonement for what you've done."

With those final words, he and the soldiers turned around, heading out of the Forbidden Lands for the last time, beginning the long journey home.

* * *

The light of dawn seeped into the Shrine of Worship, warming the interior of the massive building, showing the destruction Dormin had caused, and illuminating the body of the young woman who still lay on the altar. Her long brown hair blew in the wind, tickling her face, while the sunlight warmed her skin. For the young woman, Mono, these were sensations she had not felt in weeks, and her eyes fluttered open in response. Slowly, she looked around, sitting up on the altar.

_Where... am I? _She thought. The last thing she remembered before darkness claimed her was a short but intense jolt of pain. Now, she was here... wherever 'here' was. Mono looked behind her, seeing the Forbidden Land's landscape. She hopped off the altar, seeing no point in remaining there. She walked further into the Shrine's main hall, seeing the empty alcoves, careful not to cut her bare feet on the debris from Dormin's short rampage. The hole in the ceiling, which she now looked up at, had only natural sunlight filtering down through it, Dormin's light having been snuffed out forever.

Suddenly, a horse's whinny sounded, followed by a _clip clop... clop. _Mono looked to her left as a horse limped up the staircase into the Shrine. Agro had survived, despite the height from which she fell, and the fact that she fell with several stone blocks weighing tons around her. She had not gotten out unscathed, however; her back right leg was severely sprained. Agro limped toward Mono, knowing this girl had been the goal in Wander's journey.

Mono brought her hand up to pet the horse on the head. As she did so, jumbled images whizzed by in her mind, making her cry out in surprise. Soon, though, the pictures became more clear, and Mono was able to both piece them together (it was either do that or go mad) and realize what she was seeing: Agro's memories.

_She saw Wander, standing_ _defiant as a massive humanoid club-wielding creature advanced towards him..._

_She saw him riding Agro, facing off against a four-legged beast, bigger than the last..._

_She saw a monolithic creature with a stone pillar for a hand attacking Wander as he ran for dear life..._

_She saw him atop Agro again, fighting off a creature that was also horse-like..._

_She saw him on the back of an enormous bird monster as it soared over a lake..._

_She saw another massive humanoid creature search for Wander as he cowered in fear..._

_She saw him cling to the back of an eel-like beast as it slithered through a lake..._

_She saw Wander use his bow, taking aim at a huge lizard-creature..._

_She saw him, atop Agro again, riding around a tortoise-like abomination..._

_She saw him riding his steed for dear life away from an obscured creature with soul-piercing eyes..._

_She saw him wave a torch to fend off a smaller, tiger-like beast..._

_She saw an indescribable monstrosity rear up out of a lake..._

_She saw Wander in hot pursuit of a simply enormous, flying beast atop Agro..._

_She saw him atop a pillar as a four-legged creature rammed into it..._

_She saw him clinging for dear life to the fur of a humanoid creature as it threw its head back violently..._

_She saw a towering creature fire an energy blast at Wander as he took cover behind a pillar..._

_Finally, she saw him, the Ancient Sword in hand, stabbing these beasts, covering him in their black blood, his face a mask of maniacal determination-_

Mono pulled her hand away with a gasp, the mental images stopping. Breathing heavily, she looked into Agro's eyes, the horse almost seeming to give a slight nod. Hearing a noise from the back of the hallway, she turned in that direction. Walking slowly so that Agro could keep up, they walked toward the room with the water pool, taking care to avoid the sharp stone rubble. Reaching the back room, the pair looked upon what Lord Emon's sealing spell had wrought.

The pool of water was now gone, leaving an empty basin, and there was no sign of the Ancient Sword. In the centre of the basin though, a whimpering, horned infant lay. Mono walked into the basin, taking the baby into her arms while Agro looked on. Wander, while not killed by Emon's sealing spell, had been turned back into a baby, and save for the two horns poking out of his head, there was no sign he ever been possessed. Agro turned and started limping up the spiralling ramp, Mono standing up to follow her, still holding the baby.

When the three finally reached the top of the ramp and went outside, Mono felt her heart sink as she looked out at the destroyed remains of the bridge, the only way out of the Forbidden Land. However, Agro found a path to the right that led yet higher into the Shrine, Mono again following her.

The path led to an entryway, inside of which was one of the most breathtaking places Mono had ever seen. Atop the Shrine, above the hole from which Dormin's light poured, was a verdant grassy area. Birds- the very same doves that had gathered one by one around her as Wander slayed the Colossi- sang calls as they flew overhead. Many fruit-bearing trees grew in the centre of the area, and on the other side, a small deer grazed, raising its head to look at Mono and Agro as they entered.

Slowly, cautiously, the deer began to walk over to the girl and the horse, the latter already grazing on the grass. As it made it to them, the doves, as well as a hawk, landed around them, only to take flight soon after. While the doves scattered away, the hawk flew with a sense that some would say had a purpose, away from the Shrine, and over the now-reborn Forbidden Lands. Though this chapter of history had ended, the hawk knew that someday, maybe, something would come from this. It continued flying well into the night as rain fell upon the land for the first time in ages, letting out a cry that mingled with the distant thunder.

* * *

Wander's tale would be passed down through the generations in his village by Lord Emon. Eventually, the story would become something of a legend. Exactly why he did so, either as a cautionary tale or out of some form of respect for Wander (after all, not just anyone could stand up to a Colossus, let alone slay them all) none could say. The story was up to everyone's own interpretation of a young man who defied fate, risked and sacrificed all for love... and dared to stand in the shadow of a Colossus.

* * *

**END**

**A/N: And so we come to the end of this long journey. It's been a bumpy road to get here, and I even deleted the first draft of the story, but to get to heaven, sometimes, one must first go through hell. Personally, I myself am not QUITE done, as I want to revise (read: rewrite from scratch) chapters 7, 8, and 13. Now, I want to say this: Despite what the chapter may imply, I'm not going to novelize Ico. For one, I personally have no interest in playing Ico (I've heard it hasn't aged well, among other things), and two, the fact that an official, published novelization (entitled Ico: Castle In The Mist) already exists makes any fanfiction novelization of that game utterly **_**pointless. **_**What will I do next, you ask? Well, I think my next project will take place in a world where the monsters are a tad less... colossal. Pocket-sized, you might say. Until then, to everyone who read, faved, and reviewed, I say to you "nonomori," and farewell. (Nonomori means 'thank you', by the way). **


End file.
